Archives 2016

Here we are having fast forwarded through another year of life.  It seems like I was just writing this recap, it seems crazy it’s time to do it again. Ok so let’s start as I always do, reviewing the goals I set last year for 2016 to see how I measured up.

Spend less money – HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA Uh no, after a very expensive 2015 instead of pulling in the spending reins the dollars were spent by the bushel but more details on this later.

Fitness goals – the 400 pound dead lift and 250 pound bench press I mentioned did not happen.  Instead my strength has had a slight decline during 2016.  I have made some progress in reestablishing endurance training.  I have been getting out at least once a week for a run for a good portion of 2016.  Cindy and I even got to run in our first race together in years in 2016, completing the 4 mile Gobble Gobble on Thanksgiving.  I did not get up to the 10K distance I mentioned as a goal.  Even though I will never say I “like” running, I like both the physical and mental benefits it provides me.  Ironically a few days ago I jacked up my knee in such a manner that running will likely be off the menu for a little while.

Cindy’s fitness career – I mentioned I was excited seeing what Cindy does with her personal trainer certification. In 2016 she has taught classes at a number of different venues and has received pretty much universally positive feedback from people that take her class.  She really has the perfect personality for this type of work.

Home improvements – I mentioned the possibilities of a new roof, new appliances, and a new TV for 2016.  I delivered on two of those three items, more on that later.

Quality of life improvements due to the subtraction of club race timer from my resume – Getting away from my role as the club race timer was as freeing as I imagined it would be.  I liked it so much that late in the year I shut down my side timing gig as well.

Road trip – No road trip in 2016, the first year in a long time that I have not driven out of state.

Ok so I am not going to review my hundreds of blog entries from this year to give you a comprehensive recap so if I miss something, forgive me.  This is totally off the cuff as far as what stands out to me as the most significant things from the last year.

Ok so as I mentioned there was HUGE bubble of spending this year and it was all set in motion by one event, my decision that I no longer needed the SSR in my life.  Within the first couple months of the year I hashed out a plan in my head that if I sold the SSR, which I paid off a few months prior, it could set me up with buying a new Tacoma which in turn would also allow me to sell the old Tacoma.

Being ok with selling the SSR was something that took a long time to reconcile in my head.  I was SO excited when I bought it and when I separated from Ali it almost felt like it was me and the truck against the world, facing a vast unknown of bachelor life together.  However over the last couple years the SSR spent more and more time just sleeping in the garage.  My attachment to Cindy seemed to result in a loss of attachment to the truck in some way.

So anyway, when I finally decided to pull the trigger on selling the truck I was very fortunate to find an eager buyer, referred from my connections with the SSR Fanatics forum.  He paid my asking price, giving me a large lump of cash to play with.  That lump of cash has funded the majority of my spending throughout the year.  It has helped pay for the new Tacoma, the new appliances, Cindy’s ring, the tv, and my electric unicycle collection.

The 2016 Tacoma was the first new vehicle I have purchased since 2007.  Finding the one I wanted took some patience.  Finding a dealer that was willing to sell it for a reasonable price took some driving.  Cindy and I drove all the way over to Delray to a Toyota dealer that participated in the Costco auto buying program, a service I would highly recommend.  I paid thousands less than any other dealer was willing to sell me the vehicle for.

So far I have loved the truck and I’ve done a number of small upgrades to it.  There have been a few small issues along the way with phantom idiot lights and weird shifting.  The idiot light problem actually still is not resolved but even with these little annoyances, overall I am very, very happy with my new truck.

Buying the truck meant I had to say goodbye to my long time trusted 1999 Tacoma which I had owned for around 16 years.  The old truck which had been through many, many wars with me served me well to the very end, bringing more money on it’s sale than I expected at first.  It was definitely a sad moment when I saw it drive away from the house one final time.

So a good chunk of that money went to replacing all of our kitchen appliances with slick, modern Samsung units that Cindy and I have really been pleased with.  It made the kitchen a better place to be.

Another piece of the money went to buying a new 70 inch 4K TV and Cindy’s engagement ring, which was purchased the same day.  At first I felt a bit disappointed to “settle” for a 70 inch tv after having a 73 inch DLP set for so many years.  However once we reinstalled a shelf in the AV nook above the set everything looked balanced and just how it should be.  I was glad that Ali agreed to take the 73 incher for her large great room.  It is still serving her well.

Our animal situation this year has had an interesting twist.  The chickens continue to be a source of fun and smiles for us every day despite their declining egg production and affinity for destroying sections of the yard randomly.  We did have the tragedy of losing our biggest chicken, Cocoa, to a coyote attack during the year.  In response I installed a larger, 8 camera security DVR to give us almost total surveillance coverage of the coop and yard.  We also changed some procedural stuff to minimize another attack which thankfully has not occurred since.

Of course the biggest animal change is our adoption of Elsa, something that was totally unplanned and came about during a random visit to Rural King. Cindy had been wanting to adopt a dog for awhile but I was not sharing in her desire just yet.  For whatever reason, I relented that day and Elsa became a member of our family.  Having a dog in the house full time again has definitely been an adjustment but it hasn’t been too bad overall.  Sadie and her get along so well and Elsa has learned that the chickens are something to be seen but not pursued.  Elsa has brought huge smiles and happiness to Cindy which was the core goal.  Of course I love her too.

My health in 2016 overall wasn’t bad.  I had no major illnesses and have continued my never ending fitness journey.  Like I mentioned earlier my strength on some key movements has gone down a bit but my endurance training has improved so I will call that a wash.

My YouTube channel hit some big milestones in 2016, crossing 1000 subscribers and a million views.  Since that point things have accelerated.  It took me 3-4 years to reach those numbers.  Since hitting those numbers I am now at almost 1.3 million views and 1500 subscribers.  The increase in activity has also impacted my ad revenue from the channel.  For the first time ever I am getting a check from Google every month (need minimum of $100 in revenue) and each month is bigger than the last.  I added a LOT of videos to the channel in 2016 after a lot fewer postings in 2015.

I had my fair amount of rants and annoyances in 2016.  The biggest and most annoying was the national park service convicting me for a drone flight in Yellowstone which was done solely from a YouTube video I had posted.  The ordeal was so frustrating and infuriating for me.  The entire thing was basically just a shakedown for money and was handled in such a ridiculous manner that I can feel my blood starting to boil just typing this.  The only consolation I had was the judge reduced the proposed fine by $250 because he believed I had no idea about the flight restriction ahead of time. (I didn’t)  It still wound up costing me nearly $1000.  The incident sort of killed my drone desire, I hardly flew at all in 2016 and actually gave my Phantom to Randall during his last visit.  I do plan to get back on the wagon in 2017 as Cindy bought me a compact DJI Mavic for Christmas which should show up sometime in February.

I also had not one but two annoying run ins with ID theft in 2016. First someone cloned my credit card to go on a gas station and supermarket spending spree.  A few weeks later another person tried to apply for an Amazon Store credit card in my name.  Their attempt revealed my social security number is out in the wild.  My reaction to this was to freeze my credit with all three agencies so NOONE can extend credit in my name unless I unfreeze it temporarily.  This is a move I would recommend for anyone looking to protect their credit.

I got to engage in a lot more WoW than I have in recent years.  This is a direct result of not having race timing responsibilities gobbling up large portions of my free time.

As I mentioned earlier I decided to totally get out of the race timing business in 2016.  I only did a few small events on my own but I found that I just wasn’t enjoying it, even with not having the running club headaches as part of the equation.  I timed my final event in October and sold all of my equipment, creating yet another bulge of cash which helped fund my new obsession launched this year, electric unicycles.

Things started out innocently enough.  Amazon was running a special on something called a Segway MiniPro, a refined version of the infamous hoverboard from 2015.  Cindy and I both loved the riding experience on the two wheel bot.  Cindy seemed to master riding the MiniPro even faster than I did.  The fun level was so high that I started looking at how we could BOTH have an electric powered transportation device to ride.

I came across this thing called an electric unicycle.  Like the MiniPro, it used internal gyros to balance a rider front to back.  However unlike the MiniPro, it had only a single wheel, meaning left and right balance was up to you.  I saw a ton of videos of people riding EUCs around easily.  My logic was since Cindy picked up the MiniPro so easily, she would be able to ride an electric unicycle nearly as easily.  I pulled the trigger on a Ninebot One E+ on Ebay, the EUC madness had begun.

Well to make a long story short, riding an EUC proved to be far more difficult that either of us anticipated.  After a painful fall, Cindy swore off of learning which was a bummer for me since I initially assumed  Cindy would be the one to be the primary EUC rider because of her natural balance and coordination.  I then realized that if I didn’t want to have a $600 paperweight I needed to learn how to ride.

The learning process for me was very painful early on.  With noone in person to help train me I relied on YouTube videos and forums to help steer me through the process.  It felt like trying to ride a bike for the first time.  Eventually after a lot of effort I got the basics down and was able to ride effectively.  It was one of the prouder moments I have had in recent memory.  Being able to do something that at first seemed damn near impossible just felt good.

I have not only put in hundreds of miles on a single wheel since, I have brought other people into the fun.  Katie, Daniel, and Randall all now are EUC enthusiasts.  Even Cindy has been getting back into learning and I think in 2017 she will be riding around on one wheel a lot more than two as well.  It’s hard to explain why riding an EUC is so much fun to someone that has never done it.  You just feel free and wind up exploring areas and things you never would via any other method of transportation. My obsession with the unicycles has resulted in a somewhat embarrassing amount of spending on the hobby.  I really enjoy it and bringing others into the hobby only increases that feeling.

So that wraps up my off the cuff highlights of the year, let me come up with some goals for 2017.

Home improvements – the roof will still need to be addressed, not sure if it will happen next year or not.  At some point I’d like to have the lanai resurfaced with something less boring and requiring less paint than the stock concrete. We will probably be replacing the bathroom vanity in the master bathroom as well.

Financial goals – I am now getting in striking range of paying off my primary mortgage.  I may be able to knock that out before this time next year which would be awesome.  Once the primary mortgage is hammered out I can use that money towards burning down my home equity loan and also possibly getting Cindy a new Prius to replace hers which will be crossing 200k miles pretty soon.

Fitness – I will surely continue to do my best to fight the ravages of time that seem to always be pulling me back.  Regular running hopefully will continue and participating in another race or two this year would be a nice addition.

Travel – I would hope to resume our yearly road trips although the addition of Elsa may cause us to realign what sort of trip that can be. Sure would be fun to bring the EUCs along to explore areas to a new level.

I have an odd interest in buying a beater Jeep Wrangler.

I hope I can keep growing my YouTube channel to the point where it legitimately is bringing part time job money into the household.  I truly enjoy making my unicycle vlogs, auto maintenance, and other content I post in there.  A number of people express the content either really helped them or that they just find it entertaining.  Both scenarios make me feel good.

Every year the goal of day to day life being peaceful and happy is always a big thing.  This year there have been some challenges that I have not always done a great job of handling.  Self improvement is something that has no finish line, it’s one long race that you keep  moving forward with throughout your life.  Cindy’s love and devotion helps me keep going in that pursuit.

As the New Year approaches I hope you too can take a time to reflect back and focus forward so you can learn from the past and work towards whatever it is that brings happiness into your life.  Happy New Year!

I was shocked by the news that Carrie Fisher’s mother, Debbie Reynolds died one day after her daughter passed away.  Despite being 84 from what I read she was in decent health.  From a medical perspective, dying from a broken heart is sort of a real thing, a physical response to extreme emotional distress.  The story I read said she basically said she wanted to be with Carrie and shortly after that she dropped.  It hasn’t been a very upbeat end of the year, that’s for sure.

My twice operated on right knee has been doing pretty well for a number of months.  I have done more running in 2016 than I have the past 3-4 years for sure.  Well this morning I am walking around with a noticeable limp and my knee has that old familiar feeling of swelling and pain I have dealt with off and on for the last 15 years.

At least I know exactly how it got to this point.  On Christmas Day I was out on the slackline which we set up in the yard for entertainment.  I fell off around the half way point and came down awkwardly on my right leg in a way that quickly compressed the knee further than it would normally go on it’s own.  I then ran four miles on Monday and did lower body weight training yesterday, doing both things with knee pain going into them.  So of course the fault is entirely mine, I just hope the end result is just a few days of discomfort with my being able to return to business as usual by the weekend.

Last night we met up with Katie and Daniel at the school to ride around.  I was surprised when I saw the Ninebot One I gave Daniel had reverted back to it’s pure white appearance.  Katie peeled off the orange plasti-dip I applied to the outer ring.  The dip was pretty beat up from various bumps and scrapes.  I think Daniel is going to wind up buying a set of translucent outer rings I told him about for the bot to enhance the lighting so that will be even cooler than orange plastidip.

We took turns swapping wheels, including Cindy’s new wheel in the mix.  The LED lights on the Gotway MCM4 look incredibly cool at night. I even let Katie ride my Msuper, her first time on the big and heavy wheel.  She did well handling it but said she preferred her lighter and more nimble Inmotion V5F.  We were riding around the street lamp lit grounds for over an hour.  EUC riding always makes things a little better.

Yesterday was Nicki’s birthday.  I miss her sweet innocence as much today as ever.

2016 seems to be very heavy on noteworthy deaths.  The past week has had another rash of them with Joey Boots (Stern fans will only know who he is), George Micheal, and Carrie Fisher all checking out at relatively young ages. (49,53,60 respectively)  All deaths are sad.  Out of those three I would say Carrie Fisher was probably the most sad for me.

Her role as Princess Leia put her on a pedestal for many people my age.   She seemed to have a rough life after her Star Wars days were done with drug addiction and other issues.  When I saw her in recent years or more accurately, heard her with that old lady smoker voice it felt like a cruel joke. One of the miserable benefits of getting old is seeing more and more faces you grew up with falling to the relentless march of time.

Cindy sent me a pic yesterday of her up on her new wheel.  She was trying to do some simple balancing between walls which is cool.  She snapped the picture using her Apple Watch to remotely trigger her phone which was slick.

Katie and Daniel have gone wheel crazy.  After a marathon riding session on Monday, as soon as they got off work yesterday they took their wheels down to the greenway and rode at night on the lighted pathway.  Of course I can understand how they feel.  Once I got to the point where I could do basic riding without the constant fear of falling I wanted to be on the wheel all the time.  I’m excited that Cindy is taking steps to joining us in that fun feeling.

My Christmas extended weekend got off to a good start Thursday night with the Eagles getting the first division win of the year, beating the Giants.  Although the Eagles season has definitely slid downhill after a very promising start, I am hoping the team is laying the foundation for longer term success.

Friday morning Cindy and I were very busy outside.  Cindy invited her family over for Christmas dinner.  The yard was looking pretty ragged.  I went to Home Depot and grabbed 15 pieces of sod to patch up various spots around the yard that were damaged by the chickens or just looked shitty.

While I was there I also picked up a 9 foot tall inflatable snowman to add to our already very festive outdoor decorations.  It was 50% off so it was hard to pass up.  I spent a lot of time securing it in the yard to make it hold up to wind.  I drove two pieces of rebar into the ground on either side and used two 45 pound weight plates to give it four very strong tie down points.  I was very happy with the outcome of my work.  I was also very sad when the blower motor on it died three days later.

So anyway, Friday morning I was busting ass non-stop.  In addition to getting the sod down I weed whacked the yard.  Cindy hopped on the mower to give the grass a nice even look as well.

Friday night we made plans with Daniel and Katie to go ride out at Ave Maria.  We thought with it being two days before Christmas the town would be quite cool to see.  Well it was cool but not quite the way I expected.  The town center itself and especially the iconic church was not as decked out as I expected.  But that wasn’t the most surprising thing.  The town was more or less deserted.  We rode around there for at least an hour and could count the amount of people we saw on one hand.  It was sort of surreal, it was almost like a scene from Walking Dead.  We wheeled around freely in the middle of the street in the heart of town like we owned the place.

The residential neighborhoods had some nice decorations out so we still got our fill of lights to see.  It was just a very weird experience to see so few people in a town that supposedly has 27,000 residents. Take a look below if you don’t believe me.

On Christmas Eve I did something I don’t believe I had done since my first marriage, went to a church service.  Cindy had mentioned something a day or two before about asking someone to go to church with her, something she used to always do with Katie and her mom.  I told her I had a good idea.  I said I would attend a Christmas Eve service with her if she would agree to go back to Victoria Park to ride the wheels Christmas Eve night.  She agreed to the deal and was touched I would go with her to the service based on the void of religious beliefs that I have.

We went to Living Word Church, about 5 miles away from the house.  They were holding services on the hour during the afternoon which seemed very aggressive.  We targeted the 2 PM service and arrived with possibly 30 seconds to spare.  The parking lot was jammed, we luckily found a spot behind the church.

When we walked in I was surprised at the layout, stadium seating.  Every church I ever attended had the conventional pugh configuration.  Those stadium seats almost were entirely taken.  Cindy and I thought we would have to stand until one guy offered to have his kid sit on his lap so we could sit together which was very kind of him.

The room was very high tech with a huge video screen powered by three projectors.  On the stage was a two person band consisting of an electric piano and a guy on a guitar.  They backed up three  female singers that were really, really good who sang Christmas carols.  The service itself was like a fine tuned machine with the pastors words peppered with visual elements on the screen above him, all perfectly coordinated.  It almost felt like I was watching a TV production and that isn’t meant to be negative, it was actually quite impressive.

With services on the hour the production had to be quite quick.  It was all done in the span of 35 minutes, just short enough for the current group to get out to only be replaced by another full house for the 3PM service.  Of course I felt a bit awkward being immersed in a room full of people with beliefs not aligned with mine but it was a very positive feeling regardless.  I bowed my head and stood when asked and just kept quiet.  Cindy really appreciated me being there which is what mattered the most.

Elsa gave me an unexpected Christmas “gift” that night.  I had brought my wheel out to the kitchen earlier in anticipation of loading it up for our Christmas Eve ride.  Evidently Elsa thought it would be fun to take a bite out of one of the leg supports at some point while the wheel was sitting out there.  Of course I was a bit upset about it but she is so cute it is hard to stay mad long.  Cindy and I are learning that there are very few things Elsa will not try to eat.

So we headed to Victoria Park for a Christmas Eve ride, me on my Gotway EUC and Cindy on her Minipro.  We knew it would be crazy busy but that was part of the appeal for me.  There was a long line of cars waiting to enter the development as we approached.  The front yards of a ton of houses had people camped out just enjoying the sights and sounds.

We did our best to add to the fun.  We had a ton of people comment and ask about what we were riding.  We stopped at one house where Cindy let a few kids try out the MiniPro.  The one parent whispered to me that he actually bought his kids one for Christmas which surely was an awesome surprise for them based on how much they seemed to like riding it. We took a short break during the ride to enjoy some hot chocolate as well which was very good.  I really enjoyed spending my Christmas Eve that way, hopefully it becomes a psuedo-tradition.

Christmas morning we woke up later than normal.  I don’t think I rolled out of bed until 7:30.  We didn’t rush right into present ripping either.  We let the chickens out, fed Elsa and Cindy made us some coffee to help burn off the cobwebs.

Once again we had a lot of presents under the tree, something both of us tell the other is not necessary but it continues to be that way anyway.  We took turns opening up stuff.  Cindy got me a lot of cute and thoughtful gifts.  My “big” gift won’t actually arrive until February, a new DJI Mavic drone.  In addition we were also opening presents from my family, adding to the already large pile.

This was Elsa’s first Christmas and she seemed to enjoy the scene.  We gave her a fresh antler as her first present.  It was hilarious watching her take it between the office and great room repeatedly while she decided which was a better chewing spot.  In addition she got some dog toys which she seemed to enjoy greatly as well.

I got Cindy two big gifts peppered with a number of smaller ones.  One she had already sort of guessed based on the size and weight of the box and she was not exactly thrilled by it.  Yes I bought her a new electric unicycle, a Gotway MCM 4.

Cindy had said she was willing to try to learn to ride again a few weeks prior so I thought I would give her a solid option to ride once she learns on the cheap and slow training wheel.  Cindy felt guilty I spent the money on another wheel and said it made her feel pressure to learn to ride.  I told her that even if she never learned I would still use it so it’s no big deal.

Cindy was more enthusiastic about her other big gift, an Apple Watch 2.0.  She did  not expect that one and was very excited about some of the stuff it could do, a lot of which will be beneficial to her fitness instructor gig.

After present opening we had to get very busy.  Cindy had a large meal to prepare and we also worked on getting the house more in order to host guests.  Katie and her boyfriend showed up mid-afternoon. I finally was able to give her the electric unicycle I had been wanting to give her for the last month.  She LOVED the Inmotion V5F and was extremely excited to try it out.  The three of us did just that, riding around a quiet side street for several miles before the food was ready.  Katie had no problem adapting to the new wheel and said she loved the way it felt.  It made me happy to see her happy. Kaite got me some cool presents too, including a custom EUC Army baseball hat which was very thoughtful.

Cindy’s brother, his fiance, and his two kids showed up around 4PM.  We peppered in eating lots of good food, drinking, and watching Elf with hanging in the back yard.  I set up the slackline for people to try out and the chickens provided additional entertainment.  By the time everyone left Cindy and I were pooped.  Cindy handled the lions share of the food clean up duties which was very nice.  It was quite the busy Christmas Day.

I started Monday with my long run since I missed it on Christmas Day.  It felt absolutely necessary to run to help counteract some of the gluttony the day before.  The run felt tough and my right knee hurt some from a fall I took off the slackline.  I still hung at a 9:05 pace which is only single digits off my best for 2016.

Since I got Monday off as well as Katie and Daniel we thought we would put it to good use.  Katie, Daniel and I went to the Greenway so Katie could ride her new wheel.  We made arrangements for Cindy to meet us there after she was done teaching a class.  We did a long ride, the farthest Katie has ever done, just short of 9 miles.  She loved every minute of it.

After we finished up riding we stopped at Panera for lunch.  When we got home I told Daniel I was giving him my old  Ninebot One electric unicycle.  I told him since we now had the wheel I bought for Cindy I have a spare if needed.  I figured if both Katie and Daniel had wheels they could ride whenever they wanted, not just once a week with us.

Daniel was very appreciative of my offer and was excited to have his own wheel full time.  I have no doubt he will quickly surpass me in skill level if he hasn’t already.  It made my heart warm when we got reports that once they got home they were riding the wheels almost non-stop, only taking quick charge breaks.  Katie put something around another 14 miles on her wheel, during the afternoon/evening.  I think she is officially hooked.

On Monday afternoon we did stuff around the house mostly.  Cindy got to finally dig in to her Apple Watch and seems absolutely thrilled with what it can do.  It is definitely a cool piece of tech and much more than just an extension of the phone. I took my Msuper into the backyard and rode around for maybe 20 minutes as I shot a video.  I always wanted to see how rideable our backyard is.  The answer was, sort of.

Monday night we watched the Blu-ray version of the Warcraft movie that I got for my birthday from my step mom.  It was cool watching it at home where I could make some more sense of certain scenes I may have missed in the theater.

During the night Cindy seemed to be actually getting more excited about her new unicycle.  She tracked down an app that not only connects to the phone but also works on her Apple watch.  Maybe seeing just how much fun Katie is having on her new wheel opened Cindy’s door to learning a little wider.  As I have said multiple times, I have no doubt Cindy could eventually match or surpass my riding ability with some perseverance.   She has very good natural hand eye coordination and balance.

It was sort of a draining four days but overall it was much more positive than negative.  Hopefully it will be the kick start to a happy and healthy 2017.

So yesterday was Chapter 2 in my SQL corruption trial by fire experience.  Early in the morning we saw the document imaging system generated an error importing a single file overnight.  When we looked in the Windows application log we saw the SQL server generated a 824 error which is bad news.  It basically means for some reason it was unable to write data.   I ran a dbcheck on the database and was not happy to see around 150 “inconsistencies” reported.  I was actually surprised the DB was still online and functioning as this was similar to the errors I saw when the DB went offline 10 days prior.

So I spent the rest of the day trying to determine my best course of action.  Contacting the application vendor last time proved to be pretty worthless but we placed a call with them anyway, which didnt get returned until later in the day, after I already decided on a new course of action. In my research I determined I was missing an important part of a good SQL management plan, regular dbchecks.  By running these checks you can catch inconsistencies early, making it easier to recover from them with minimal data loss.  The only time I ran these was after a problem already existed.

So it seemed like my best option was to pay for a Microsoft professional services incident where you pay $499 and they have a high level tech contact you to remedy the issue.  I placed the ticket around 3PM.  They had a four hour response window.  When I closed my door shortly before 5 I assumed we would be tackling the problem in depth the following day.  Well as I took a couple steps down the hall I heard my phone ring in the office.  I instantly wondered if it was Microsoft calling.  I ran back into my office and picked up the phone.  It was indeed Paul from SQL support group.

We embarked on a roughly three hour trouble shooting session that involved restoring back ups and testing their integrity.  We determined that even the back ups had the same inconsistencies as the production database.  The plan then shifted where the tech ran a repair on one of the backed up DB’s which fixed the inconsistencies by deleting the records that contained them.  The downside of this was a handful of data was deleted but in the big picture in a DB containing millions of images, losing a few is not really a concern.

My main concern was that the application still ran correctly after the clean up.  The tech swapped in the repaired DB and I brought the application back up.  I was able to test various aspects of the document imaging process, it all seemed to be working fine.  I thanked the tech for all of his help.  It was great to deal with someone so knowledgeable and even better that he was not from India.

I didn’t leave the office until a little before 8.  I felt badly because we made plans go riding the PTV’s with Katie and Daniel to look at more Christmas lights.  I was happy that even though I got home late they were still there and ready to ride.  Instead of going to Ave Maria as originally planned we went to the nearby Waterways development which had some very pretty lights as well.

It was a bit chilly with temps in the mid 60’s when combined with the wind from rolling around at 10+ mph.  Even so we had fun and were out there longer than we originally planned.  We made plans to meet up again Friday evening and head out to Ave Maria on the wheels, it should be a very festive and fun way to start off Christmas weekend.

I have known for awhile that the struts on the Prius have not been in good shape which probably helped accelerate the wear of the tires that were just replaced.  It sort of hammers over bumps.  I have now watched the replacement process for the front and rear struts/shocks.  It involved taking a LOT of stuff off just to access to the parts I want to replace.  So although it is involved I would not call it difficult work.  I think I will buy myself a Haynes repair manual shortly and tackle the job as an early 2017 challenge.

This will be my last working day until next Tuesday.  I am looking forward to a great four days with lots of giving peppered with some receiving.

Yesterday during our department meeting my boss was talking about how we had two short weeks in a row.  I looked at him confused.  Since Christmas was Sunday that meant we had Monday off, meaning next week was short but not this week.  He reminded me that we also get Christmas Eve off which is Saturday so that means Friday is the make up day for it.  My day all of a sudden got a lot more awesome when I found time off I forgot about.

Sadie will be going back to Ali’s either today or tomorrow.  Of course Cindy and I will miss her but I think Elsa may miss her even more.  She has so much fun when Sadie is around.  She also feels more confident and at ease.  Once again Elsa has spent a lot more time out in the great room with us at night since Sadie has been there than when she isn’t.

I think I am on a circling pattern as far as Christmas gift buying goes.  There may be a gift card or two I may snag yet but I think I am pretty good to go.  When I look at my 2016 Christmas budget column in Quicken it would also indicate it’s time to shut things down.

So it was cool to have my birthday on a Friday this year.  I went home after work and got changed so we could head back out to Carrabbas for a birthday dinner.  It seems that all of the sterilization of the Naples location over the years, most of which I have complained about repeatedly is evidently annoying other former patrons as well.  Katie and Daniel were able to get immediately seated at 7PM which would have been WTF crazy a few years ago.  A 90 minute wait on Friday night was not unusual.

Again some of the shortcomings of the chain were front and center during the meal.  The wait staff which used to be very interesting, good, and stable since they made good money, has now become a carousel of faces.  I never recognize anybody from one visit to the next.  The guy we had as a server was in training and had another woman helping him.  Even with tag teaming the table the service was sloppy and slow. The “glasses” the draft beer come in are ridiculously small, an obvious cost cutting/profit padding move.  The reason glasses was in quotes is they don’t even use real glasses anymore, they are plastic.  Plastic glasses break less = more $$$.

Our food at least was half decent and I was surprised they actually had staff sing happy birthday in Italian to me, another tradition that had been ditched a few years back.  It was another subpar experience at what used to be my favorite local restaurant.  That title clearly needs to be up for grabs.

So although the dinner was only so so we had a fun activity planned afterward.  I had all of the PTV’s loaded up in the back of the Prius.  We planned to go see the awesome Xmas light displays in the Victoria Park development on them.  Cindy and I had checked out the lights a couple years ago cruising top down in the SSR and at the time I thought that was an awesome way to experience the sights and sounds.  Well doing it on the EUC’s and MiniPros was way better.

We parked in a shopping center about a half mile or so from the development.  Cindy had brought some battery powered mini-Xmas lights that she wrapped around each one of us to add to the festive spirit.  Once we got into the development it was awesome.  The degree of decoration on nearly every house was just great.  People were really interested in us of course, wondering what the heck we were riding.  We looked like rolling UFO’s.

Riding around all that traffic was a bit challenging at times but we managed ok, mostly staying on sidewalks but even when we were on the road the pace of traffic snaking through the development was very slow so it wasnt a huge deal.  All four of us had a lot of fun.  I could hardly believe we were riding until 10PM.  Riding at night definitely is a different kind of cool.  It was so much fun that we are hoping to get out on the wheels one more time this week after work out at Ave Maria.

On Saturday morning Cindy and I were outside early attending to some normal yard chores.  We planned to have a pretty mundane day since we were supposed to do a nighttime Xmas 5k at 6PM.  We picked up Sadie mid-morning and then took both dogs to Rural King to grab a couple things.

While we were eating lunch at home we were watching something on the DVR.  I had saw Elsa go out the dog door early on in the show but didn’t give any thought to the fact I didn’t see her come back in.  After the show was over we were looking for Elsa in the house and could not find her.  I remembered I saw her go out on the lanai so I assumed she was still out there.  When I went out there and told Cindy I didn’t see her, things got serious.

Cindy went into full fledged freak out mode.  I had the far side door cracked as I was filling the pool with a hose.  I quickly surmised that she pushed the door open.  After calling her a couple times she came trotting up to the door, crisis averted, or so I thought until I looked at her face.

The left side of her snout looked like she was punched, it was visibly swollen.  My first guess is she got stung by a bee.  We have a certain weed in the grass that creates tons of tiny white flowers that the bees love.  Elsa was acting normal otherwise but Cindy was in panic mode.  My thought was we should ice her snout and give her Benadryl.  Cindy was worried the allergic reaction could be severe so she contacted an emergency vet and took Elsa there immediately.

There evidently was another bite or sting on her back as well.  The vet wound up giving her a couple shots.  By the time they got home the swelling had gone down and Elsa seemed back to normal.

There was an unfortunate casualty from the Elsa scare, our Xmas 5K.  The vet said we needed to observe Elsa for a few hours to make sure all was well.  We certainly couldn’t leave her home alone while we did the 5K.  I was really looking forward to the race and paid a pretty steep price for the entry fee.  I have NEVER not participated in a race I registered for so missing the event was very disappointing.  Cindy had picked up our bib and race shirt already the day before but we missed out on a pretty epic finisher medal by not being there.  Oh well, sometimes things just don’t work out even though I am not all that good at accepting that situation.  Instead of running we spent Saturday night eating pizza and watching DVR content.

Since we missed the 5K I absolutely had to get out running Sunday morning to atone for it.  I was not thrilled that although it was exactly one week before Christmas it was 70 degrees and humid at 6:30 in the morning.  It made for a much sweatier December run than normal.  I survived it, getting in with an average pace just under the 9 minute miles.

Katie and Daniel came over for our Sunday morning ride.  We didn’t do anything thrilling, using DD as a home base to explore two different nearby developments.  We wound up putting in over 7 miles on the ride.

Instead of watching the Eagles/Ravens game Cindy and I decided to go see the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One.  The 1:50 matinee was sparsely populated which was nice.  The movie itself was nice but not great.  The first half of it felt sort of slow.  The second half of the movie was more exciting for sure but I still felt much less excited overall than I did after seeing The Force Awakens.  There is some disturbing facial CGI going in the movie that will stand out like a sore thumb when you see it.  I’d give the movie a B+ which is lower than I hoped for going in.

When I got home I installed a new cabin filter in the Prius.  Most people don’t think about them but they do get pretty damn gross.

Even though I didn’t see the Eagles game, it followed a now familiar script, losing a game they could have won.  Unfortunately in pretty much every close game this year the Birds are the ones who ultimately choke at the end, a disturbing trait that needs to be shaken off via new personnel or coaching techniques.

So here I am at the summit of my 49th year on the planet.  Anyone that reads the blog or knows me a little bit knows I don’t enjoy getting older and have had hang ups about it since I turned 30.  Of course I realize that wasting a lot of energy worrying about aging is pointless as it’s going to happen anyway, regardless of how you feel about it.

Despite my dislike of the concept of birthdays, I have had some good ones over the years.  For a period of three or four years my birthday fell right around the same time as the Entre Computers company Christmas party at O’Kelleys.  I only started drinking alcohol around the age of 24 so I made up for a lot of lost time during those celebrations.  Those Entre parties were some very crazy times.

For the last 19 years I typically don’t want to do anything major to recognize a birthday.  Outside of my 30th birthday where a surprise party was held for me at the Peanut Bar in Reading, and my 40th birthday where Ali and I went to Vegas, that was really the only two big deals and I like it that way.

To celebrate my 49th birthday I plan to hit the gym at lunch for core day and then enjoy a nice dinner at Carrabbas with Cindy and her daughter tonight.  It’s simple and subtle which is all I really need.

When I look at my scorecard thus far in life I see a lot of swings and misses but overall I’d like to think I am .300 hitter.

So my Dufisthenics blog site which is hosted on GoDaddy has been running slowly for awhile.  Usually that is due to some plug in behaving badly so I have been disabling and deleting them.  Despite my efforts the site still is lethargic.  So I figured what the heck, I’ll just call GoDaddy and ask them to check the site to see if they saw anything else going on.

So I call them up and get a woman on the phone in a couple minutes.  I explain to her the problems I was having and asked if I could get some help.  “Absolutely!” she said.  All it takes is me agreeing to a $79 diagnostic charge. WTF, the $300 a year I am already paying doesn’t qualify me for site diagnostics??  Evidently it does not.

I said no thanks.  The woman did say she could send me an email with generic WordPress troubleshooting information and it was free.  Wow thanks a lot, a free Google search, how generous.

I had another disappointing interaction earlier in the week when I contacted a company named Hisense regarding the Chromebook laptop I bought in May.  I only used it a handful of times and now the battery is completely dead.  It will not run for one second on battery power.  It only will work while plugged in.  When I contacted Hisense they said since it was a refurbished unit it only had a 90 day warranty.

I knew the warranty duration was short but hoped the representative would step out of the box and offer remediation since a battery should not croak so quickly.  I expressed this desire to them.  The response I got back was basically “too bad, so sad”.

Do you think Mitt Romney feels a bit “punked” right about now?  He got on his knees and went on two dates with Donald only to be shunned and replaced by Putin’s good buddy Rex Tillerson.  Poor Mitt.  I would say his political career is officially over.  You can’t talk as much shit about someone as he did and then come running with your pants around your knees when a cabinet position is dangled in front of your nose by the same individual.

Tomorrow is my 49th birthday.  I can hardly wait, for it to be over…