Yesterday on my way home the host on the radio show I was listening to was playing a bunch of songs from the early 80’s. It got me thinking about that time period of my life and how much simpler things were. I remember the big focus was baseball and exactly how to turn my four door, six cylinder 69 Buick Special Deluxe into anything resembling a muscle car. I remember cruising down the road with my newly installed Audiovox stereo system with killer Jensen 6×9 speakers sloppily cut into the rear seat deck blaring my Van Halen cassette tape. Life seemed simple and clean.
I do recall thoughts about what adulthood could possibly hold for me. At that point I still held out hope that a professional baseball career could allow me to bypass a conventional existence. Of course instead I followed a much bumpier road after dropping out of the higher education system not once but twice, holding down jobs in a half dozen different professions, going through two failed marriages, and making more mistakes than I care to admit.
If I could somehow sit down with the version of myself from 1984 I wonder what sort of advice I could offer. I wonder if the young version of myself would even have the sense to listen. It seems like everyone has to bump into their own walls along the way. Certain people just keep getting stuck in the same corner and never get out. I have somehow managed to steer myself into the clear but have left a lot of dents in those walls along the way.
Still, I sometimes yearn for those days when the only real thing I was concerned with was the here and now, content to leave adult problems to the adults.
So Friday afternoon I received an email from YouTube which both took me by surprise and angered me instantly. The email stated that the “brand channel” I created a few months ago dedicated to electric unicycle videos, EUC Army, was suspended. It said the reason had something to do with “spam, scams or commercially deceptive content” which made no sense whatsoever.
Since I went through something similar years ago with my original YouTube channel I knew how frustrating it is trying to get it corrected. Basically your only option is to appeal the claim and wait anywhere from 2-4 weeks for someone to get back to you. For a company built on the cutting edge of the internet to be so ridiculously slow addressing issues like that seems idiotic to me.
I also immediately sent a tweet to the YouTube support Twitter account. While I was there I saw a number of other people complaining of the exact same thing, sudden, unexpected termination of their channel. Back in December there was some sort of “bug” that caused a number of channels to be suspended without cause. I asked if possibly this was something similar. I received no response to any of my questions, thanks @TeamYouTube!
So now I just have to sit back and wait, having no idea what on the channel would have triggered the suspension. I think it is absolutely ridiculous the way YT handles these things, especially suspending a channel with no prior warning of any sort of problem. Surely a lot of people abuse the system but I don’t think that justifies not giving people the courtesy of a detailed explanation of what the actual problem is instead of vague categories of abuse. If there is one thing to be thankful for is that they didn’t hit my main channel that I have invested so much time and effort into. I am however paranoid that the same lunacy could strike at any time.
So after riding my EUC into work Friday I at first was up in the air regarding if I wanted to ride it home or just have Cindy pick me up. By mid-afternoon I decided I was going to make it a round trip and ride home on one wheel as well. The ride home was different as I didn’t have a time crunch on me. As a result I did not try to push my speed as much. The combination of lower speed and less headwind resulted in much better battery efficiency. I arrived home with 30-40% battery reserve instead of the 10% I had left in the morning. My feet and calves were totally numb, the end result of spending more than double the amount of time on a wheel than I ever had previously in one day. It was a cool experience that I might do again if the conditions are right.
On Saturday I attended to outside chores for awhile before heading to Home Depot for another load of mulch. I have been slowly refreshing the landscaped beds that had been ravaged by the chickens for a couple years. It has been very nice to have the beds continue to look nice afterwards instead of being dug apart within an hour.
Later in the afternoon, despite putting over 50 miles on one wheel Friday, I went back out solo. I took Cindy’s wheel just for something different. Her 14 inch Inmotion EUC feels so small and jittery compared to my Msuper. I eventually got more used to it and put almost 10 miles on the odometer. Saturday night Cindy and I watched our latest DVD, Eddie the Eagle. I really enjoyed the true life story. Of course I remembered Eddie from his 15 minutes of fame during the 88 Olympics but the movie filled in the backstory in a way that you couldn’t help but feel good about. A-
Sunday morning I got up early for week two of my running comeback. I added two laps to the distance from last week, hoping a slow build up in distance will yield the most injury free results long term. Unlike last week I wore my Garmin for the run. I was very surprised by the numbers it showed at the end with an average pace of 8:37 which is faster than any run I have posted in years. My Garmin however is old and sometimes doesn’t do well with accuracy so I am skeptical that those numbers are legit. Regardless I felt decent about my effort.
I wanted to get out on our EUC ride earlier this week. We have been getting out late morning which winds up eating up the heart of the day which is a pain in the ass. We managed to get out the door at a decent time, headed back to the Greenway so Cindy could continue her electric unicycle progress. For whatever reason she prefers learning there to anywhere else.
Last week Cindy made great progress, doing long rides alongside the handrail without touching it. I was a bit worried that since she didn’t do any practice since she may have had to take a step or two back before moving forward again. Instead she continued her rapid improvement. Not only was she able to do extended riding without touching the rail, she did extended riding with no rail at all, out on the asphalt path part of the trail! In addition she got much better at getting on and off the wheel without holding onto something, doing it at least a couple dozen times.
I felt excitement by proxy from her smiles as she rode by me repeatedly. It obviously has taken her a long time to get over the fear from falling on the Ninebot One months ago but in a way I think it has made the satisfaction of being able to ride even greater for her. She still has a lot of practice to go until she will feel confident and comfortable but she has the basic skill set now and based on my experience, once you have that things get even better quickly. I knew for sure she finally felt good about riding as she allowed me to film her for the first time.
The weather on Sunday was just about perfect with temps around 80 with low humidity. The rest of the day had a chill out vibe. Cindy was quite tired from the riding, something I recall clearly when I was learning. Your body feels like it is constant tension when you are unsure of your ability to stay on the wheel. As she gets more and more comfortable it should get less draining.
Ali and her boyfriend dropped off Sadie late in the afternoon. Ali is having some work done on her place that will last around three weeks so we will be watching Sadie during those weeks and returning her for the weekends, the reverse of the norm. Elsa and Bowser were very excited by Sadie’s arrival although I can tell Sadie can only take so much of the other dog’s off the charts excitement level.
I didn’t watch the Oscars but heard about the f up regarding the best picture winner where inexplicably the wrong winner was announced, handed the award and then had to be whisked off stage when the real winner was discovered. Crazy shit.
I have a short week due to the RO system that is scheduled to be installed on Thursday. Three day weeks are something I can fully support.
So ever since I got my Msuper I had these thoughts rolling around my head about the viability of me being able to ride it to work someday since it has a large battery. I have done some long rides on the wheel since then, the longest being the 20 mile Dunkin Donuts ride. Well yesterday I suddenly decided it was time to up the bar.
The first step was to go onto Google Maps and get a rough idea of distance. The pedestrian map from my house to work showed 22.9 miles. I estimated the Msuper could go about 25 miles on a full battery charge so I should be able to make it although with not much wiggle room.
The weather forecast for Friday looked favorable with no rain and mild temperatures so that was all I needed to start the wheels in motion. I figured I could wear my backpack which could carry my gym clothes, lunch, and battery charger so I can refuel the wheel at work.
When I have expressed this idea of riding to work in the past to Cindy it was met with devout disapproval so I was not surprised she was not happy when I shared my plans with her. I assured her it would be fine, I planned to ride sidewalk the entire way on roadways that were well lit since I would be leaving while it was still pitch dark. I estimated it would take me roughly an hour and a half to cover the distance.
On the ride home last night I was observing some of the roadway, checking for sidewalk condition and availability. I actually decided to do a slightly longer route than Google had mapped out. The way I would go would avoid some construction areas with spotty and/or missing sidewalks. Last night I did some prep including topping off the battery charge and gathering up the stuff I would need for my longest one wheel adventure to date.
I set the alarm for 5:30 AM but was awake before it even went off, perhaps from the anticipation of the ride. I ate breakfast and got ready. I was originally going to wear a hooded sweatshirt but Cindy convinced me to wear a long sleeve white t-shirt instead. I’m glad I did, I would have been too warm in a hoodie I think. She also clipped a couple of her bike flashing LEDs to my backpack for added visibility even though I thought the lighting on the Msuper would be sufficient.
So I never rode with a backpack before. I wasn’t concerned about it affecting my balance as much as it affecting my comfort or lack there of. I wasn’t sure if 23 miles of riding would be agreeable to riding with a pack. Luckily it didn’t seem to bother me at all. I shoved off in total darkness, unsure of what the journey would have waiting for me. Of course I had my GoPro with to document it all.
The ride early on was fine, daylight started to break as I was 4-5 miles into the ride. I knew the most challenging part of the ride would be crossing intersections that were clogged with morning commuters. The last portion of the Immokalee Road segment was a bit hairy as the sidewalk ends and I was riding in the bike lane facing traffic for a 1/4 mile or so. I had three full lanes of traffic coming at me creating considerable wind that was blowing me around a bit. I was glad when I finally got onto Collier Blvd.
This segment of the ride was the nicest and unfortunately the shortest. I was able to ride the bike path well off the road all the way up to the intersection with Vanderbilt Beach Road where I had my first of a number of crossings of six lanes of traffic. For the most part I did not have an issue with drivers yielding to me. Most of them were dumbfounded by what I was riding and were happy to stop so they could stare at me as I cruised by uni-style.
I had my running/biking GPS on so I could track speed and distance. For a good portion of the ride I was going 17mph plus, crossing the 20mph mark once in awhile. I figured with all the slowing down I was doing for intersections and driveways I needed to keep the speed up.
So things were going fine. I was cruising down Livingston Road when I heard my first beep from the Msuper. At first I thought it was just a “too fast” beep as I was doing 21mph at the time. I soon realized it was actually a “your battery is getting low beep”. When I looked at my GPS I saw I was between 18-19 miles into the ride meaning I had to still cover roughly 5 miles. I was now officially worried.
As the battery reserves fell so did my speed. I tried to keep my speed at a level that would keep the warning beep silent. Even in a low power situation the Msuper is faster than my Ninebot One was at full power. I texted Cindy to let her know I had potential battery capacity problems but I told her I was just going to try to baby it to get there. Baby it I did, by the time I made it to the office parking lot I could barely hit 10mph but I got there. The EUC app said I had about 10% battery left.
The ride took about 15 minutes longer than my rough estimate because of all of the major intersection crossings and the reduced speed I had to travel the last four or five miles. When I entered the office a number of people had seen me out the window so I did a bit of a show and tell as I got out of my safety gear. Everyone was very surprised I was able to log such a lengthy journey on such a device.
I now have the wheel on the charger. I plan to use it to get to the gym at lunch. I am still up in the air if I am going to ride it all the way home tonight. I have not ever run the battery so low so I am unsure how long it will take to be fully charged. If I can’t get it fully topped off by the end of the day there is no way I would make it back without pushing it, literally. The total distance on my GPS was right around 23.5 miles.
So anyway, I was happy I was able to finally execute an idea I had for a long, long time. What is life without challenges, after all?
This weekend there is no shining project on the list but that doesn’t mean there won’t be one. I am sure more EUC riding will go down and hopefully Cindy can build on the significant progress she made last week.
So although the most important part of YouTube videos by far is the content, specifically that it is interesting or entertaining, production value matters too. If the video quality is terrible, people may not be able to hang in there to appreciate the content. Another crucial thing in building a YouTube channel is getting people to interact with your videos whether it be via ad clicks, hitting the like button, commenting, or subscribing. All of these things factor into the YouTube hive mind which result in your videos getting more and more visibility in various “Suggested videos” lists.
I added a quick intro to my videos a few months ago to add some consistent branding Last night I made a quick 10 second outro that I plan to slap on the end of all future videos to reenforce the “please subscribe” message as well provide links to my Instagram and Twitter accounts. Using those other social media platforms to help promote a YouTube channel is a solid strategy and something I hope to incorporate more regularly.
I forgot to mention that I received my tax refund incredibly quick this year. It took less than a week which I think is some sort of personal record. Of course I already have the refund spent in it’s entirety on the new whole house RO system that is supposed to be installed next week.
Yesterday at the gym I had this sudden increase in strength that came out of nowhere while doing decline bench press. I felt stronger than I had in months. I have always had monthly strength fluctuations to some degree but this was the most noticeable week to week change I can ever recall.
I followed up my strange strength gains with an equally strange wrist sprain when waking up this morning. I recall doing nothing that would have caused such an injury yet I now have pain in the right wrist that feels like I punched a wall. Mystery aches and pains are something that seem to happen quite often as you get older. For the most part I just ignore them and keep limping along.
Yesterday we received a SpotBot that I ordered. When we first adopted Nicki years ago we got an older style SpotBot shortly afterward. It became a valuable tool in the constant battle of pet excrement versus carpet. When Ali and I separated the SpotBot went with her since she had the dogs primarily.
Well with two dogs in the house now and Elsa’s recent run of bathroom accidents a SpotBot once again made sense. I saw they made some changes to the design over the years but it seems to still work well. I sat through a cycle or two on the bed just watching it do it’s thing.
So I had big plans for my President’s Day, none of which involved doing home labor. I wanted to go out on my EUC and do some filming with my Mavic at the same time. I had ideas of doing a long ride that could cover multiple locations. My first stop was north collier regional park. I thought this would be a good spot for me to do an auto follow test with the drone. I had already done a similar test but this time I wanted to try to have the drone lower and closer to me as I rode.
So I got all the gear up and running and took off slowly on my wheel with the Mavic in pursuit. I immediately heard a noise coming from my wheel that concerned me. It was a nasty rubbing sound that changed depending on speed and angle. The EUC noise concerned me much more than flying the Mavic so my drone air time used only half of the battery before I shut it down.
I rode around the wheel some more to see if I could get a better idea of what was going on. The noise sounded bad. Now when I rode at the Greenway off road with Katie the day before there was an incident where something got sucked up into the wheel, it sounded like a vine, I never saw it. However after that happened I rode another mile or two without a problem. Why I would be hearing a noise the next day baffled me. I threw the wheel up on the tailgate of the truck and did my best to look inside for any sort of debris. I saw nothing. I was bummed out that my big riding plans were cut short but there was no way I was going to keep riding with that noise going on.
So as soon as I got home I did further diagnostics with my wheel. I utilized the LED light on my phone to try to get a better look inside the wheel. I finally spotted what looked like a piece of wood jammed at the very top of the casing above the wheel. I was relieved to see I found the problem I now just had to find a way to get it out.
I spent at least a half hour digging inside the wheel with a straightened wire hanger, trying to push the wood towards one of the openings so I could grab it. Even once I got it to the edge I had to pry it out with a needle nose pliers. The piece was so big I wondered how it got up there in the first place. Once the wood was removed I took the wheel out in the driveway for a quick test which verified the wheel was now noise free. I was very happy my beloved MSuper was intact.
So I played some WoW during the afternoon before deciding to take the now wood-free wheel back to the swamp. Instead of driving my truck there and wheeling from the parking lot I decided to ride the wheel the three miles to the trail instead. I planned a much shorter trail ride this time, without venturing into the heart of gator country.
There were only four or five vehicles in the parking lot but I passed no less than a dozen people on the trail which surprised me. It looked like a number of the holes in the boardwalk were fixed since my last ride, I saw a lot of fresh lumber in place. They also removed the large tree that was blocking the path rather early on.
The ride itself was nice. I had one close call when I spotted a striped snake at the last minute and had to dart suddenly to miss it. I was right on the edge of dumping it. I decided to only go into the path until I saw my first gator which happened around the two and a half mile mark. I saw what I assume was a mother gator with two 1 foot long babies right next to her. That was enough reptile action for me for the day and I back tracked from there.
On my way out a guy that was taking wildlife photos asked if I could pose for a picture. He thought the EUC was pretty amazing and couldn’t believe I was able to ride it on a trail. The ride back home was smooth. At one point I was actually going fast enough that I started to feel mild tiltback on the wheel, something I hardly ever feel with the Msuper since it’s top end speed is so high.
Even with the stick incident early in the day it was a very enjoyable day off where I just got to do my own thing pretty much all day long. I could use more days like that.
Saturday morning I was up and outside early. After doing the chicken clean up I hit the yard chores like weeding and weed whacking. I turned the pool equipment back on after leaving it off overnight as the pool guy recommended so the freshly cemented joints could dry. I was not thrilled when later in the day I noticed another wet spot by the plumbing. It was coming from the back flow valve that was part of the heater install. There was a very steady drip.
I sent pictures of the leak to the pool guy along with a description. He called me back and suggested I try to tighten the connector on the valve as it is threaded. He said it was possible his other work may have caused it to loosen up. Luckily I had a big pipe wrench. I turned the valve very slightly, skeptical that I would be successful. However it appeared the drip did cease as the concrete pad stayed dry from that point on.
After I was done in the yard Cindy and I did a Rural King/Home Depot run. At Home Depot we just planned to get some mulch, both the conventional and the rubber variety to refresh more landscaped areas that were chicken casualties. We wound up getting some shelving material as well for a seat of the pants project, building a shelf in the master bathroom.
The bathroom counter in our bedroom has a large chunk of dead space under the drawer. It’s something that always bugged me to some degree for the last 16 years but I never acted on it. Well since Cindy repainted the bathroom and we installed the new faucet this seemed as good of a time as any to do it. Cindy had been looking at some stuff online but none of it was a great fit to the dimensions we had so building something seemed like a good option.
I have built other things out of this shelving material before, most notably the dog food platforms. We had a drawing of the approximate dimensions we were going to use. The construction process took place outside the large shed. We used the Honda generator for power for the saw. Like most projects I do, this one was organic where construction plans change on the fly.
When we thought we were done the first time I stood back and eyeballed the shelf. One of the rectangles formed by the shelving was whacked, despite us using a level to try to keep everything squared up. Luckily we were able to just remove the screws of the affected shelves and reattach them in a more visually congruent method. The shelf looked good in the bathroom although I miscalculated slightly. When we picked the width of the shelf which would leave just enough room for the trashcan we forgot to add in the width of the shelving pieces, meaning the trash can no longer would fit. That problem will be addressed by a new trash can.
I was tired of doing work so late afternoon I threw two of my wheels in the back of the truck. I brought my low end $200 wheel to do some going backwards practice, not wanting to damage my expensive Msuper from all the falling that is part of learning to ride the opposite direction. As expected I struggled a lot, not able to go more than a couple feet before falling off the wheel. Once I scraped open my ankle I called it quits. In addition to the EUC video I also shot a 10,000 mile review of the Tacoma.
Saturday night Cindy and I stayed home and watched The BFG. I thought the movie was sweet, endearing and very well done, an A rental.
Saturday night was a rough one in the sleep department due to dog activity. Since Katie has moved in with us most weekends she is out late at night. Well Bowser does not do well if left alone so Cindy has been trying to stay up with him. Katie was out extra late Saturday night and Cindy was exhausted so she tried leaving Bowser in Katie’s room which seemed ok at first however he eventually started barking. Elsa, who has been having some bathroom accidents lately had another one in early in the AM which was another prolonged sleep disturbance. If I was lucky I may have gotten four hours of sleep Saturday night.
When we were up from the dogs I turned off the 6AM alarm to go run as I did not want to wake up Cindy if at all possible. I instead woke up on my own around 7 and headed out. I planned a very conservative run of two miles to see how my knee/IT band would respond.
I was hoping for some nice cool weather to run in. Instead it was warm, humid and incredibly foggy. The thermometer in the truck read 74 degrees. I could instantly tell the nearly two month layoff from running was impacting me. The run was slow and steady with some pain in my right leg early on that evened out as I continued. Today it doesn’t feel horrible which is a positive.
When I got home Cindy was still in bed so I wanted to allow her to sleep as much as possible. I went straight outside and did the chicken clean up in just my running shorts, the sweaty shirt went right in the laundry.
We had talked Saturday about going for a ride Sunday but it took until late morning for that to happen until Katie woke up from her late night. We decided to go to the Greenway again since Cindy said she likes practicing there. I brought both her wheel and the Minipro just in case she changed her mind.
It was a big day, Cindy made her most progress to date, riding at least a couple hundred feet without support multiple times as well as pulling off a couple free standing mount and goes in addition to some clean dismounts. Her wheel hit the ground a few times but for the most part Cindy was able to bail cleanly which is another important skill. It was funny, for the first time ever it was Cindy being the one extending the riding timeline. She was actually having fun and excited as she kept building on her accomplishments. Katie was sitting on a bench as Cindy kept chugging along. I was proud of her. On the drive home Cindy talked a lot about how much fun she had. Even though she had been able to stay upright prior to yesterday, I think yesterday was her true “click” moment where she actually was able to feel the fun instead of the fear.
Yesterday afternoon I made a run to Autozone to get coolant for Katie’s truck. The Ram is losing coolant somewhere and more than once Katie has had to stop because the truck overheated as a result. I could not see an obvious coolant leak but I wanted to make sure she at least had coolant on hand so she doesn’t get stranded.
To be honest her truck is a mess. It costs a ton to operate between gas and repairs and is pretty much the worst possible vehicle she could own based on her current circumstances. Cindy has tried to urge Katie to think about getting more sensible transportation but so far that effort has been unsuccessful. If I have learned one thing living with a 23 year old is they don’t welcome advice much at all, regardless of the experience that leads to it.
The rest of the day I mostly chilled out with a lot of WoW thrown in. I am hoping today is filled with a lot of what I feel like doing, my work quota for the three day weekend has been fulfilled.
So this morning the pool guy is supposed to show up to hopefully fix the leak at the pool pump as well doing a total replumb of most of the stuff on the concrete pad. The pool heater is getting ripped out and the pool filter is going to be moved to it’s spot to allow as much room as possible for the RO system when it is installed. I am hoping the work proceeds without incident.
I have another one of those wonderful government perks this weekend, getting off Monday for President’s Day. After beating myself up pretty severely the last couple weekends with chicken fencing related projects I hope to have a less laborious three days ahead of me.
So I met up with the guy from Water Medic yesterday to inspect my water setup to give me an estimate for installing a whole house reverse osmosis system. This was actually the owner of the company which I thought was sort of cool. Despite having a staff of nearly 50 people he likes to do all the estimates himself. I immediately found Rich to be a down to earth and likeable person.
He first took some measurements of the pad where the water equipment is located. The RO system takes up a lot of space so there would need to be some rearranging done. It just so happens that I have a pool guy coming out to replumb some stuff and remove the old broken pool heater. Unknowingly this was perfect timing as one of the things that would make the RO install simpler is to have the pool filter relocated to the spot where the pool heater is now. After taking measurements we went to the well head where he did testing of the water coming straight out of the ground. He said our well water was actually really good with no iron, and low contaminants.
He explained to me how the system works and his general business philosophy. He said he knows other companies are selling RO for more money but his main hope is customers continue the monthly maintenance service after the first year. He said he has done absolutely no advertising in the Collier County area but has installed several hundred systems solely on word of mouth. The components used in the system are high quality and even after the water goes through four filters it gets sanitized one last time by a UV filter before it enters the house.
I got a small credit for my old equipment and a $200 discount for being a government employee. The final estimate was $1700 less than what the other water company quoted me and with Water Medic I get a free year of monthly maintenance that normally costs $70 a month, another $850 in savings versus the first quote. It was pretty much a no brainer.
I didn’t commit on the spot as I told Rich I wanted to confirm my pool guy could move the pool filter and that I could get the day off for the installation. I confirmed both of those things within an hour and then locked in the install for March 2nd. The system will consume all of my tax refund and then some but it’s a solid investment in the value of the house going forward.
I still had some daylight left so I took my Msuper out for a ride. In the middle of the ride, which I was shooting video of, I filmed a second video outlining the lower body stretching I have been doing for my IT band pain. I have been wanting to do a video regarding it for awhile and yesterday seemed as good of a time as any. It’s sort of funny how I got interrupted in the middle of the stretching video which prompted me to relocate to a more remote location, a handball court.
I forgot I actually shot a THIRD video yesterday, a brief documentation of the weird shift surge my truck has been doing first thing in the morning.
So even though we went out to our V-day dinner Saturday night I came up with the idea of picking up Carrabbas to Go for dinner last night so Cindy didn’t have to cook. Evidently my idea was not unique, I sat in a line 10 cars deep at the restaurant waiting to pick up the food. They seemed unprepared for the business as a single girl was running back and forth trying to sort out who got what. I eventually just got out of my truck and walked inside to grab the food myself. My bag was sitting on the counter along with a dozen other bags. The drive home was miserable. Evidently an accident on 75 had diverted a ton of cars back into the non-interstate roadways causing a quagmire. I didn’t get home till close to 6:30.
We had a nice night at home. Cindy got me a couple practical gifts and I gave her a cool pair of white gold earrings I got from Costco. The have a tiny leaf pattern in them which I thought was pretty and unique.
Today I am meeting a guy to get an estimate on whole house reverse osmosis. I had the company that installed our current system give us a number and it was significantly higher than what this company advertises. I heard about these guys from a friend that had their system replaced with RO and have been very pleased. Not only is the up front costs less, they include one free year of monthly maintenance which I wasn’t getting from the first company either. The expense for either system is considerable but what you are getting for the money is top quality water without any maintenance by the homeowner whatsoever. They handle it all. That scenario sounds pretty attractive at this stage in my life.
I have not really been commenting on the three ring circus which has been the Trump administration thus far. I expected it to be a mess and it has been, perhaps even more so than I could have imagined. Via a FB friend I stumbled across a site that allows you to track the buffoonery on a daily basis, whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com
As you flip through the day by day recollection of Trump administration events it seems rather surreal. Check it out.
I do recall thoughts about what adulthood could possibly hold for me. At that point I still held out hope that a professional baseball career could allow me to bypass a conventional existence. Of course instead I followed a much bumpier road after dropping out of the higher education system not once but twice, holding down jobs in a half dozen different professions, going through two failed marriages, and making more mistakes than I care to admit.
