Archives 2017

So as I signed off before departing on my flight home from PA I remarked sarcastically how I hoped for a smooth travel experience, knowing the exact opposite would be the case.  Well for once I was glad I got it wrong, both flights to Atlanta and Fort Myers were uneventful, I actually got to Fort Myers 15 minutes ahead of schedule.  To make things better, the empty seat next to me that I paid for was not resold by Delta on either flight meaning I had space to relax where 98% of the rest of the cabin did not.

Cindy and Elsa picked me up and life was back to normal.  I quickly stripped off the long sleeve thermal shirt I was wearing as it was clearly no longer necessary.  One of the first things I did when I got home was to verify that the glued together and carefully packed ceramic skull I bought for Katie survived the trip intact.  It thankfully did.  I left my luggage in the laundry room so everything could be washed, even though I did some laundry at my dad’s.  There was just too much cross contamination going on. Wednesday night we just chilled out and caught up on some back logged dvr content.  It felt very comforting to be back inside my own four walls and even more so to sleep in my own bed.

So Thursday was a fresh day and I decided I needed to get shit done, despite a right leg that continues to give me a limp worthy of a medicare patient.  The first task was taking down all of the exterior Christmas decorations.  This is a job that is much better suited to two people but Cindy was teaching a class and I didn’t feel like waiting.  I slowly made progress unwrapping the lights around the six palm trees and then wrapped each set around it’s own spool for storage.

As I was removing the icicle lights from the front entrance area I noticed the gutter on that side of the house was packed with oak tree leaves.  This spun off into a side project of my cleaning the gutters on that side of the house.  I grabbed my battery powered DeWalt blower and went to town.  It worked very well.  I also noticed just how much asphalt continues to build up in the gutters, another reminder that doing something about my roofing material is going to have to be done in the next few years.

So I finally got the gutters cleaned and the lights packed away, a good days work.  It should be now time to relax, right? Wrong.  I got another bug up my ass to clean out and reorganize the small shed, something I have been meaning to get done for a few months.  I began the arduous process of pulling out shit and throwing it around the yard in piles that designated if it was to go back in the shed, taken to the curb, or thrown out. Cindy got back after I ate lunch and was starting on the reassembly process which she assisted on.  I am much happier with the end result as it makes it easier to get to what I need.  The purging also had the side benefit of clearing some shelf space which is always a good feeling.

Finally I got to rest for part of the afternoon.  The labor had left me feeling all kinds of sore, not only in my right leg but back as well.  Katie stopped by Thursday evening to eat dinner and pick out clothes for the wedding we are attending this weekend.  We also did some riding on our wheels over at the school.

This was a big moment because it was the first time Cindy had her new Inmotion wheel out in the wild.  She was being very protective of her wheel, she didn’t even want me to carry it to the car and she placed a pillow between her wheel and mine.  I reminded her that hoping to keep an electric unicycle blemish free is an impossibility.  She said she realized that but she wanted to be the one to create those blemishes, fair enough.

While Katie and I rode around Cindy headed for the magical rectangular fence that she used last time as a training aid.  It took a little time for her to get reaccustomed to  the physics but by the time we left ahe had done a number of corner to corner free wheeling rides which are at least 50 feet in distance.  She really has the hardest part behind her, now it is just putting in the time so she trusts her body to just react.

This morning there was a steady light rain going on but it didn’t stop me from getting outside to knock out the weeding and do a few other things.  It still is hard for me to believe just a few days ago I was marching around in 5 degree air and surviving.

I finished up the blog entry in the rental car just as Patrick walked home from work which worked out well. Sixer the cat was happy to see I returned and wasted little time reestablishing my lap as a hang out spot.  I filled Patrick in on my last couple days of adventures in Marienville since he and his girlfriend left.  We were waiting for Nicole to show up so we could all go out to dinner to celebrate my last evening in Pennsylvania.

The place we were going was in easy walking distance, a perk of living in an urban area like Patrick does.  The restaurant was called Scratch.  They had a very modern menu with more vegetarian entrees on it than the meat variety which worked out well for me.  I decided to complement my vegetarian tacos with a couple Iron City beers which seemed appropriate considering my location.

We had a very enjoyable dinner.  Nicole has had a very interesting background which complements Patrick’s world traveling adventures quite well.  She seems to be a really cool person and dinner just reenforced my already positive opinion of her from our first meeting.

I thought it was funny that one of the guys that worked there was familiar with Naples.  Evidently he was down there for one snowbird season.  It felt odd sitting there being able to say Immokalee Road and have a guy in Pittsburgh know exactly where/what it was. We listened in to the first part of trivia night which evidently is an every Tuesday night thing at Scratch.  As usual my knowledge of random trivia was less than impressive.

I wanted to pay for the diner bill but was thwarted when Chase shut down my card, assuming it was being used in PA for nefarious purposes.  I appreciate the caution but it was a bit annoying that I had to call when I got back to get it unlocked.  I have seen ads where other CC companies simply send a text if an additional confirmation is needed.  I need to see if I am able to turn that on for my card.

Since I was rolling out relatively early in the morning we didn’t stay that late.  When we got back to Pat’s we caught the very tail end of Obama’s farewell address which I heard from Cindy was very emotional.  Before heading up to bed Pat introduced me to a ridiculous but very funny animated series on HBO called Animals.  I need to check it out more in depth when I get home, you should too.

This time I made sure to pull my bedroom door closed until it clicked to prevent a noisy, middle of the night luggage licking session by Sixer.  I wanted to make sure I got a half decent night of sleep under my belt.  I still struggled somewhat sleeping, just because of the ambient noise associated with living in a city neighborhood but it was better overall.

When I got up I headed straight to the shower and then packed up my stuff to head downstairs.  As soon as I sat on the sofa Sixer immediately jumped on my lap and parked himself there.  I guess he missed me last night.  Pat came down from his shower and was ready to start his daily walk to work so I loaded up the car to leave.  I thanked him again for his hospitality and encouraged him and Nico to come down and visit Florida with us, the door is always open.

I had plenty of slack in my travel time to the airport.  I stopped at a Dunkin Donuts to grab some breakfast and a coffee and then stopped one more time to fill up the Journey. Oh, the rental car was a Dodge Journey SXT by the way.  Yea I never heard of it either.

Getting to the airport required dealing with rush hour traffic but with my GPS having my back it was no big deal getting back to the airport in an expedient manner.  Dropping off the rental car was a 30 second process and I was back inside the terminal 5 minutes later.  I used the self service Delta kiosk to check myself in.  The machine spit out the credit card receipt for my annoying $25 checked bag charge but for some reason did not print out the boarding passes I need to board the plane.  I wound up having the desk clerk repeat the process for me.

When I went through the security check point the woman running the x-ray pulled out my cheap Dollar General Store gym bag that is housing my glued together skull.  As she rocked the bag back and forth she said to me, “Is that a skull???”.  I told her yes, but it ws a ceramic, decorative skull.  She said she was concerned it was a real skull which evidently is not allowed in carry on baggage, imagine that.

So I have now found my way to the departure gate in plenty of time to allow me to punch this out.  My flight probably won’t even begin boarding for another hour.  The trip has come and gone quickly.  It was very nice to get another taste of the world I used to know and to see friends and family that I usually only interact with via the internet or the phone.  I of course look forward to getting home to Cindy, Elsa, the chickens, and even Tuki.  Not having to plan to avoid hypothermia will be a great thing too.

Today was my last full day in Pennsylvania and it also happened to be my dad’s actual birthday, even though we celebrated it in a grand fashion on Saturday night.  I once again woke up relatively early.  It’s deceiving in PA because it gets light and gets dark signficiantly later and earlier than in Naples.  I was happy to see it was actually “warm” today with the outside thermometer reading 23 degrees.  It was snowing pretty steadily.  I still bundled up before heading out to the shop to restart the fire to warm things up for the animals.

I also intended to do the sheep’s food and water since I watched Teresa do it all the day before but she came out just as I finished getting the fire started so I only assisted in the chore, scooping hay out of their water while refilling it with the hose they have inside.  It’s so funny watching the sheep line up to chow down on their pellets followed by hay.  The funniest thing of all to witness was when the llama laid down amongst the sheep while eating.  His long neck still put his head well above the rest of the flock and he used it to lean over and grab hay from his casual position.

After dad got back from his coffee and paper run he was almost immediately back out the door to go get an oil change done on the Subaru.  He said it shouldn’t take long at all.  Well not long at all turned out to be almost the entire morning.  He was so late getting back that Teresa and I were getting a bit concerned.

Well a little after 11 we hear the door open.  Dad had returned and we immediately asked what was up.  Dad started on a somewhat awkward explanation about why he was delayed.  Evidently during his trip to the vet Monday evening with Clara he clipped a deer with the car.  He was late because he was getting an estimate to repair the damage.

The damage however was secondary.  Dad share’s my love of animals and he was really upset about the incident.  The way he described it was one deer darted in front of the car which he missed.  As he was hitting the brakes hard a second deer followed and got clipped by the driver side corner bumper.  He said the deer was dazed in the road but on the return trip the deer was no longer there.  I have heard sometimes of deers getting dazed but then recovering.  Both my dad and I hoped that was the case.  The damage to the bumper wasn’t huge with a few cracks but it will need to be replaced.  The total estimate for the repair was less than 1k. Dad and Teresa said they try to avoid driving the roads near them at night for this exact reason.  Deers dart out all the time and depending on their timing the end result can be disasterous.

So anyway I wished dad happy birthday officially this time.  I felt bad he had to have his day darkened by the deer strike but I could totally relate, I would have felt terrible about it as well.  Since it was approaching lunch time dad suggested we go out for one last meal together at the Bucktail Hotel in Marienville.  I have never eaten there before.  Teresa didn’t seem that thrilled with the idea because of past experience but I said I was fine with it, even if it was less than stellar.  Marienville is sort of all about experiences that are less than stellar.

The hotel restaurant reminded me of a common theme in town, it was once much more active and populated than it is now.  The hotel had a huge amount of space in their two dining rooms yet only two tables were occupied, if you include our own.  The laminated menu looked like it was created in Wordpad but had enough variety to fulfill most pallets.  I ordered something with my fish sandwich I may not have had for a decade or more, potato soup.

The food was not spectacular but I didn’t expect it to be.  I still enjoyed just sitting in the old building adorned with old decorations and old furnishings.  A trip to Marienville is much cheaper than renting a time machine.  The waitress who my dad and step mom knew by first name suggested we go into the main dining room to check out the Xmas decorations that were still up.  Evidently our waitress was part of decoration team.  The empty room did look beautiful indeed, too bad it doesn’t seem like many people get to see the fruits of their labor.

So as we headed back to the house we noticed school busses dropping kids off which was odd since it was only mid-day.  A lady at the restaurant said they closed school early because of the potential for freezing rain and ice.  We saw that potential realized on the drive home.  The rain was dropping from the sky with an air temp that read 28 degrees, not a great thing since I planned to make the 80 mile drive to Pittsburgh in an hour or two.

Things at the house were looking pretty shady.  It did not take long for the vehicles and the ground to have a crunchy coating of ice on them.  I did not panic as I knew the forecast was for the temps to keep rising and I knew closer to Pittsburgh it was much warmer.  I took a shower at dads and then turned on the rental car to let it warm up for quite awhile, the windshield was encased in ice at that point.

The last minutes before a visit with my dad, stepmom, and the dogs is always somewhat sad, whether they are down with us or vice versa.  I know they enjoy having family visit and the circumstances this time around with it being dads 70th birthday made it more special than normal.  We sat by the fire and just chatted for awhile, most of the time I was reaching down and petting Clara who was laying in the dog bed next to me.

After taking a group picture with my phone timer I loaded up the luggage and said my farewells.  It was a whirlwind trip in some ways but in others it was relaxing.  I got to read tons of my Warcraft novel, blog, and just enjoy and appreciate the stark differences between where I was and where I normally am.  Sure the cold was awful but even that didn’t cause as much of an issue as I thought it could.  After handing out hugs and belly rubs I was out the door.  I tapped the horn as I pulled out the crunchy driveway, unsure of the next time I will be back in the Marienville magic.

The first part of the drive was indeed hairy.  I consistently stayed 10 mph under the speed limit even though I did not sense any slipping of the tires.  The temperature reading 28 degrees kept me on my toes at all times.  As time passed my white knuckle grip on the wheel relaxed.  Soon it became clear the roads were just wet.  I made one pit stop along the way at a Dunkin Donuts to help keep me alert. By the time I pulled up to Patricks place it was a balmy 46 degrees.

Pat is not home quite yet so I decided to put the time to good use punching out this entry, in the dark, parked in front of his house.  Leaving for my 11 AM flight tomorrow will be logisitically much simpler from this closer vantage point as opposed to if I tried to make it all happenfrom Marienville in the wee hours of the morning.  I look forward to a hassle free trip home tomorrow, like that was even a possibility….

I had my best night of sleep on the trip so far which was welcomed.  The loft I have been sleeping in was extremly toasty thanks to the wood stove that had been burning all day.  When I crawled into bed I was just in my shorts and a t-shirt.  However once the fire burned out overnight I found myself reaching for extra covers to compensate.  The temperature when I awoke this morning was a balmy 7 degrees.

Everybody seemed to still be in bed when I got up. I decided I would bundle up and go out to the shop which is connected to the barn where the sheep stay to restart the fire in the stove out there that helps keep the out buildings somewhat warm for the animals.  As I was setting up the fire I could hear a few of the sheep “talking” to me, wondering what was going on.  I walked over there briefly to say hello, unsure what the morning sheep related chores were.  They stared at me confused but at least didn’t run away like they did yesterday.

I got the fire cranking and then headed back inside.  In the time I was out in the shop dad had woken up and taken the dogs with him in the truck to go grab his daily paper and cup of coffee.  While he was gone I went back outside with Teresa to see what she does with the animals.

She feeds them which consists of giving them grain which looks identical to chicken feed and then layering hay on top of it.  The sound of 20 sheep eating grain simultaneously was unique.  I told Teresa it sounded like rain on a tin roof.  She then would clean and refill their huge water barrel and do a brief cleaning of the stall which supplements the weekly full cleaning they have to do.

The one ram named Frasier was one of the babies that was born when Cindy and I visited two years ago.  He is unique in that he has no fear of people since my step mom basically raised him, he was rejected by his mother.   He let me stroke his face without fear and when Teresa started petting him he wagged his tail in approval.  It was so cute.

So Frank and Dee stayed over last night.  After we ate something for breakfast they pulled out to return to eastern PA, leaving me as the lone guest in the house.  It felt weird since a scarce 24 hours earlier there were close to 20 people inside the walls.

Dad suggested a plan where we take the dogs for a walk followed by visiting a relatively nearby landmark, the Kinzua Bridge.  I told him it was fine with me as long as we could stop at the Dollar General Store and the post office for me to try to secure stuff ot help me protect the glued skull for the trip back to Florida.  We hit the store first and I was surprised at the selection.  I scored a roll of bubble wrap and a cheap gym bag that was just the right size to hold the box I hoped to find at the post office.

At the post office I thought I had struck out, not seeing at first the square box I envisioned for the skull in the collection of flat rate boxes they had on display.  However my dad noticed a square holiday themed box on the wall that they evidently sell.  It looked to be the perfect size to hold the skull with some room for padding yet still fit in my cheap gym bag.  I felt fortunate to find everything I needed within a few mile radius.

We did the walk part of the trip first, taking the dogs on around a two mile trek on a snow covered trail.  By that time it had “warmed” up to 12 or 13 degrees.  I felt like I have adjusted somewhat to the frigid air.  The only thing super painful was my exposed face.  Everything else felt tolerable.

The drive up to the bridge took some time.  Dad described the bridge to me but I didn’t get a real appreciation of it until we got there.  This bridge was constructed in the late 1800’s and was meant to cross a huge valley in order to expedite rail traffic to Buffalo.  It’s supports were originally made from iron but were replaced around 1900 with steel to greater support the tremendous weight of fully loaded trains passing over it.  The maximum speed a train crossed the bridge at was 5 mph.

The bridge was used for decades as an important part of the supply route until it was eventually repurposed as a part of the route recreational trains would use on rail tours.  In 2003 there was a F1 tornado that ripped some of the pilings free, collapsing a large section of the bridge which would never be reopened to serve the purpose it had held for over a century.  Instead in 2011, the standing, repaired portion of the bridge was opened up as a tourist attraction.

Just last year an amazing visitor center was opened which is filled with all sorts of interesting interactive displays that tell you about the very long history of the bridge and how it came to be what it was today.  After checking out the visitor center dad and I walked out onto the bridge itself which at it’s highest is some 250 feet off the ground below.  The span you can walk is roughly 600 feet long, at the end of which is a square covered in clear panels that you can walk on, allowing you a rather disconcerting but very cool look straight down.  As you look out over the collapse area you still see all of the bent and mangled trusses scattered in the valley as well as the other standing portion of the structure several hundred yards away.  It was really a wierd visual to take in.

The walk back from the end was pretty brutal as a serious wind smacked us head on, knifing into our exposed skin like little icy daggers.  That 600 feet felt twice as long on the way back.  Even so I really appreciated dad making the suggestion to go there, it was a unique experience I just never would have sought out on my own.

We stopped at a quaint little establishment on the way back in Mount Jewett.  Evidently my dad and step mom like to go there a lot in warmer weather to have breakfast since the dogs can join them at the outdoor tables.  The place had a for sale sign on it that dad said has been there for more than a year.  The woman that runs it was quite friendly and pleasant.  Dad grabbed a side order of bacon and eggs that Maggie and Clara split when we got back out to the truck.

Since arriving back at the house I have been trying to get through a few more chapters in my book as well as punch out this entry.  I also carefully packed the purple skull in it’s new protective barriers.  It all fit together pretty much perfectly.  I was very skeptical before today that I would be able to get the skull back home intact.  I now think I have a good fighting chance.

Tonight will be a chill night enjoying more of my stepmoms delicious cooking while watching some Netflix rental they have on the counter.  Tomorrow I am thinking I will pull out mid-afternoon to head back to Pittsburgh so I can avoid driving the twisting, snowy roads at night.  It’s been a good few days thus far and I have no reason to think the conclusion of the trip won’t follow the same template.

As I expected today was  slower paced. My step mom, dad and Paul made a big breakfast that fed a total of a dozen people.  In the past my ATT phone service here was very, very poor.  Evidently in the two years since I last visited they beefed up their towers, I now have LTE service with two bars most of the time.  It was actually solid enough speed to allow me to upload the pictures I have taken so far from the trip.

After breakfast I bundled up and headed outside with the dogs after bundling up thoroughly.  I even used the insulated long johns Cindy picked up for me before the trip.  I certainly wasn’t warm but it was tolerable, even with the thermometer reading 5 or 6 degrees.  Dad added a number of additions to the out buildings since my last visit and I wanted to check them out in daylight.  Everything looked great and added even more functional space and storage to their ever expanding estate.

While I was out playing ball with the dogs the sheep and llama came out to see what was going on.  However as soon as I acknowledged their presence and started walking towards them they all backed away in fear.   I let them be and just walked around the property some more taking in the frigid but beautiful snow covered landscape.

I then heard the back door of the garage open followed by Patrick pushing his motorcycle out the door.  He has an enduro style 200 CC Yamaha motorcycle that he used to use as a commuter vehicle in Pittsburgh.  He has since bought a real road bike so he has been leaving the Yamaha at my dad’s place to ride around there.

He was worried that the bike wouldn’t start since it had not been run in many months.  Surprisingly even with the time passed and freezing subzero temperatures the bike fired right up.  After letting it warm up a little bit Pat made his first off road snow riding attempt.  There were a couple inches of snow covering everything.

Pat was very unsure and rightfully so about how the bike would do in the snow.  He kept his feet off the pedals as emergency training wheels at first.  It seemed like as long as you kept the speed reasonable and absolutley did not touch the front brake the bike was pretty controllable.  Pat did a couple laps around the backyard.  He then asked if I wanted to give it a shot.

I have not ridden a motorcycle in a number of years and the fact it was below 10 degrees with snow on the ground did not make for a good scenario to reacclimate myself to riding.  So of course this meant I got right on.  Just like Patrick I was very cautious during my first few minutes.  I soon learned to trust it enough that I pulled up my feet and was able to keep the bike upright.  The slippery surface was only one part of the problem, the other was the icy wind blowing on my face, making it feel instantly numb.  The freezing ride was a source of unexpected fun.

My brother Todd and his family were over as well as both of the couples from dinner last night.  Everyone went out to the barn to meet the sheep and llama.  The sheep were scared until dad bribed them with grain.  The girls really liked feeding the sheep but especially the llama.  They spent a lot of time interacting with the animals and loving it.  It was the first time my brother came out to my dad’s place.  Hopefully they get a chance to come out more often so the girls get a chance to experience a part of life much different than they are accustomed to.

We had a lot of Steeler fans in the house so of course we had to watch the wildcard game they had against the Dolphins.  The Steelers jumped out to a big lead early.  The Dolphins actually had a few opportunities that they squandered by turning over the ball.  In the end the Steelers won pretty easily by 13 points.

We followed up by watching the Green Bay/Giants game that is winding down now, which seems to be firmly in the Packer’s control.  My dad and Frank went on a pizza hunting mission for dinner. The first two places they planned to go to wound up being closed.  In Marienville there aren’t alot of options so luckily their last option was open for business.  Even with being a third choice the pizza was good to me.

Patrick and his girlfriend shoved off for Pittsburgh a short time ago.  Most of the afternoon there has been steady llight snow so hopefully their trip is uneventful.  I told Pat I would see him Tuesday evening.  His girlfriend Nicole, who really seems great said she might be there as well.  You can tell from their interactions they each seem to get each other and both seem very happy in each other’s presence.

Tomorrow I don’t have any big goals although I would like to hopefully be able to venture out to find a box and packing materials that will be able to adequately protect the skull that Patrick and I worked so hard to rebuild.  Other than that I still have a good chunk of my Warcraft novel to complete and I can backfill any other free time just enjoying my interactions with my dad, step mom, their animals and the harsh winter conditions.  The cold has been tough as expected but thanks to my additional protective clothing I have been able to deal with it better than I thought I would.

The second leg of the flight on Friday from Atlanta to Pittsburgh was not bad. I got one perk from missing my connection flight, they gave me emergency row seating which was awesome for my long legs and stiff knee. When we landed I immediately started regretting wearing jeans and a baseball shirt with my coat in my checked bag. The airport was coooold. As I waited for my bag to come out I stood on the edge of the space with my legs against a heater so at least my calves felt some warmth. Once my bag showed up I wasted no time opening it up and ripping out a sweatshirt and my coat.

I had forgotten that the coat I brought has a fcked up zipper that is damn near impossible to close. I sat on a bench for literally 10 minutes trying to get it zipped up unsuccessfully. Well there was no way I was going to be walking around in single digit temps with a coat that didn’t close. I decided that after I got the rental vehicle I would find someplace to buy a coat.

The rental experience was different. Pittsburgh is an old airport and is one of the few that still has the rental cars on property. My first walk out into the brutal icy air was a wake up call and reaffirmed my commitment to get more appropriate clothing. The Alamo rental booth had a single woman in it. I showed her my paperwork and she did not look happy to have to come outside to show me the vehicle.

I supposedly reserved a Nissan Rogue but they didn’t have one so I was given another mid-size SUV, a Dodge with a SXT designation. I’m not really sure what the model is called. When the woman said it was all wheel drive that was good enough for me. I set up my GPS with my brother Patrick’s address and headed out into traffic. The Dodge drove nicely although it actually felt like it had more power than I really wanted on potentially slippery roads. If I hit the gas even mildly it pulled hard enough to break loose the tires.

So I knew I needed to get another coat, I didn’t know where exactly I was going to get one. As I was on the highway I saw signs for what appeared to be a big retail area, including a Target which seemed like a good choice. In just the brief walk from the parking lot to the store the bitter cold was biting through the clothing I had on.

As I was walking towards the coat area I spotted these pajama pants that had my dad’s name written all over them. One leg was an Irish flag and the other leg had Irish things like shamrocks, horseshoes and other lucky things. I decided to grab them and add them to his birthday gift collection.

The coat selection wasn’t as large as I thought it might be and I was surprised I didn’t see any of those huge overstuffed type that make you look like the Michelin tire man. I did find a Champion coat that supposedly offered good warmth as well as being somewhat water resistant. The integrated hood was a nice feature too. I tried on an XXL and it fit well on top of the fleece coat I was wearing with the broken zipper. It fit so well that I have been wearing dual coats since that moment. It works well.

I also spotted one of those classic winter hats with the integrated ear flaps and faux fur liner. The fact that it was a camouflage print made it a no brainer snap purchase item. After I paid for the items I immediately put them on as I was leaving the store. I immediately felt a huge difference when I hit the frigid air. It felt much more tolerable.

The drive into Patrick’s took close to an hour because of late afternoon traffic. I have never done anything other than drive past Pittsburgh in my life. As I got into the city I immediately liked aspects of it. Right outside the city are multiple old but pretty vibrant housing districts. Most of the buildings are early 1900’s PA style, similar to what I was used to in Reading. The cool thing is the diversity in construction styles unlike the cookie cutter, rubber stamped housing that is the norm in present day.

Pat warned me to avoid Rialto street which is one of the most steep and narrow streets you will find anywhere in the country. I got to experience that later. So the GPS got me there. As I pulled up to Pat’s duplex he was responsibly shoveling and salting his sidewalk after some light snow had fallen.

We headed inside Pat’s place that he has done some pretty extensive work to. I had seen pictures of a lot of it but never saw it in person. It was as fitting of a living space as I could imagine for Patrick. The space was clean, old yet, modern in certain ways with efficiency and creativity on display all over the place. The Japanese items that adorned the walls were very cool and reflected Patrick’s emersion in Japanese culture which started at a pretty young age and has continued in his job which sends him there pretty regularly.

I got to meet his cat, Sixer, who he adopted through his girlfriend’s sister. Sixer was all black and very friendly. It took very little time before he was up on my lap and chilling out. I was tired from the long day of travel and was happy to just sit on his couch for awhile to catch up. I had not seen Patrick since our sister Meghan’s wedding two years prior.

For dinner Pat drove us to this huge church that was converted into a micro-brewery and a restaurant. It was in a word, amazing. To see the formerly holy space reutilized in such a manner was something I simply never saw before. There were a lot of people there but we didn’t have to wait because there were so many tables inside. Pat said that the repurposing of old churches is actually something pretty common in Pittsburgh. It was the ultimate recycling project.

We both enjoyed our meals. I went with a classic PA meal of perogies, something I rarely if ever eat in Florida. I washed it down with a few in house beers that definitely had more alcohol content than the Miller Lites I would normally go for. It was a very unique way to spend my first meal in Pittsburgh.

When we got back to Pat’s place he put on War Dogs on his Amazon Fire stick, a movie neither of us saw. The movie had some interesting things about it since it was based on a real life scenario where these seemingly normal kids from Miami somehow become arms dealers to several countries, including the US government. Despite the interesting premise I didn’t find the movie all that compelling although I was so tired my attention was fading in and out. I’d give it a B.

I told Pat I was beat. I took a shower in the bathroom that Patrick totally gutted and redid himself. I can’t tell you the last time I showered in a huge clawfoot tub with a pull around shower curtain.

My sleep that night was spotty. Despite having my noise machine app going on my phone I found myself jostled out of sleep repeatedly from outside noise. The walls and windows on old homes were definitely not designed with sound proofing in mind. At one point I heard this odd noise that I couldn’t place. At first it sounded like somebody scraping the sidewalk. I wondered if for some reason Pat was outside already. After it continued incessantly I realized the noise was coming from within the room. It was Sixer, he had pushed open my bedroom door and was licking my luggage. I am not sure what the appeal was but he just wouldn’t stop licking it. I eventually got up and threw the luggage on the corner of the bed. Of course he jumped up on the bed. So to get him to stop licking I just petted him instead. Despite the lack of sleep I thought the whole thing was sort of amusing.

So Patrick suggested we go to breakfast at some famous diner that is nearby. On the way we had one chore to complete, disposal of his badly dried up Xmas tree. I helped him wrap it up in a tarp and compress it enough so it fit in the back of his Honda Element. It just turned out that the tree recycling center was right by the huge Uber complex.

Pittsburgh is a big hub for Uber and they have been using the market to test Uber driverless vehicles. They basically take stock Fords and attach a big collection of electronics to the roof to enable the autonomy. The vehicles still have an actual driver behind the wheel, for now, but the eventual intent is to have a fleet of headless vehicles. Evidently the thought is that the Pittsburgh area has some of the more challenging and diverse driving circumstances around so if the program works here it should work almost anywhere. While we were dumping the tree I actually spotted a couple of the vehicles by the side of the building and snapped a picture of them. It was very cool.

The diner experience was a good one as well. Evidently this place has actually gotten national attention and I understood why. The staff was super friendly and accommodating. The menu was huge. I wound up getting something called a mixed grill where they mix the hash browns into your scrambled eggs. It was quite tasty and far more food than I could finish.

After breakfast Pat asked if I wanted to walk to the nearby small business district where they have all sorts of sidewalk retail going on. I told him that would be fine, with my new coat, furry hat and gloves the arctic temperatures weren’t affecting me as severely as before.

We quickly came upon some unique stores, many of them selling TONS of Steelers gear. As we were in front of one Patrick ran into a neighbor of his. He introduced us and within 30 seconds I got to hear of a property line dispute he was having with somebody. I tried to act supportive and sympathetic even though I had absolutely no idea why he thought I would care.

So we ducked into one store and I saw on some shelves these cool painted ceramic skulls. I immediately thought of Katie who loves these things. They had one painted in purple, her favorite color. I gave little thought to the logistical challenges of getting the fragile piece home intact and just bought it. As I was carrying the bag down the street a minute or so later I was thinking to myself how I needed to make sure I was careful to not bang the bag I was carrying it in into anything. About 15 seconds after I had that thought I decided to change the hand I was carrying the bag in. Because I was wearing gloves my dexterity was not normal. As I made the transfer the bag that had the skull prompted slipped out of my hand and hit the sidewalk, making a sickening sound like a light bulb breaking. I was angry and upset about it, more than I let on to Pat but we both said that possibly it could be glued back together, although I doubted it.

So we continued walking around. I was in disbelief that this many vendors are willing to brave the cold in order to get their goods out on the sidewalk where they were more easily accessible. Pat even pulled me into some large, popular fish market that was a beehive of activity. It almost reminded me of the Seattle fish market without the fish tossing.

I got a good taste of the area so we headed back. We had another errand to run, picking up the cake my step mom ordered for dad’s party. It was at some small French bakery that was very busy. There was a couple in front of us that were ordering an incredible amount of pastries. By the time we left they had filled six boxes with their order and were still going. Pat and I grabbed the large, heavy, rectangular cake and headed back to his place. My job was to keep the cake stable on my lap despite the up and down terrain that a lot of the area has.

So when we got back I pulled out the skull to assess the damage. As expected it was in pieces but most of those pieces were large and the breaks were clean. I pulled all the parts out of the bag on a table by the front door. Pat said he had super glue so we decided to try to reassemble the skull like a big 3D puzzle.

The reassembly process was tedious. Piece by piece we stuck together and held a minimum of 60 seconds counted down by Patrick’s Amazon Echo. Some pieces stuck together cleanly the first time, others required additional time, pressure and glue. We worked together well as we slowly made progress. The last part was the largest and most annoying of all to get in place. We did some cutting and filing to make it fit together. In total I bet we spent an hour on the skull. The glued together result is far from perfect but now has a long back story that should make it more unique, IF I can somehow get it back to Florida without it breaking again.

I helped Pat outside change out his donut spare he had on his VW Golf with the normal tire he just had repaired. Doing car work in the cold adds a new dynamic I am not used to obviously. You want to just get done asap to get the f out of the freezing temperatures. While we were out there Pat did some overdue disconnection of his rain barrel from the gutters which had frozen solid. While I was out there I gave Patrick’s pull up bar that he constructed a couple years ago a try in my full winter regalia. The bar felt solid as I posed for Patrick to take a unique exercise picture.

I wasn’t really paying attention to time when this was all going down. My dad’s party was at 5 and it was something like 1:30. I totally was forgetting about the two and a half hour drive to Marienville we still had to cover. Pat and I quickly took showers and loaded up to go.

On the way there we stopped to pick up Pat’s girlfriend, Nicole. I had never met her before. We didn’t have much time to do more than a quick hello and hug but I instantly got the vibe that she was a really nice person which is great. Patrick deserves that.

So the drive to the Gateway Lodge was long, very long. A good portion of it was on conventional highway but even more of it was not, instead traveling on two lane roads at 60mph+. The roads were salty but fine otherwise. The closer we got to the lodge the more snow was seen by the side of the road.

So when we got there a couple friends of my dad were already at the bar. We grabbed some beers and just hung out for a bit. Shortly Todd, his girlfriend, my niece and his girlfriends daughter showed up as well as the other couple that dad has been friends with for decades. We all milled about awaiting my dad’s arrival. As far as he knew he was just going to dinner with my stepmom and my sister Meghan’s family who had come up earlier in the day.

Finally we saw them pull up. Our group all moved to a far room to hide until dad came inside. When dad turned the corner we all stepped out and got to enjoy the expression on his face of true surprise. It was a very cool moment.

The evening from there on was a big blur of fun, laughs, and stories. I had enough beer to allow me to flow freely in and out of conversations without the issues I sometimes have otherwise. I sat right next to dad so I got to have a front row seat to his experience and I can safely say it was all good.

We didn’t get out of there until after 10’clock. We made a mini-caravan where I followed my dad and Patrick followed me back to my dads place. We stretched the sleeping accommodations of their house to the max. I slept in the open upstairs loft while Patrick and Nicole slept on a futon on the floor downstairs while Meghan, Paul and Cadence were in the single guest bedroom.

The next couple days have no specific script although the reality of the long drive from Pittsburgh changed my plan for my return flight on Wednesday. I originally planned to get up early Wednesday morning to drive back to the Pittsburgh airport, a drive of some three and a half hours. I now think I will be in better shaped if I drive to Pittsburgh Tuesday evening and crash at Patrick’s one more night before making a much shorter drive to the airport Wednesday morning.

It’s been a very busy two days. I think the pace for the next two will slow down, a lot.

So this blog entry is being done offline and will be posted once the secrecy aspect of it is no longer an issue.  On Thursday I got out of work early to assist in all that needed to be done in anticipation of my surprise flight to icy cold PA for my dad’s surprise 70th birthday party.  I got out early enough that everything I needed to get done was done.  I even found the time to go for a brief ride on my Msuper.

Thursday also was Katie’s birthday so even though we were scheduled to leave on a flight early this morning we met Katie and a number of Cindy’s family at Outback Steakhouse, a place I think I may have patronized once in my life.  After last night I may patronize it more often.  I loved that they had Miller Lite on tap and that it was served in a large GLASS frosted mug. I helped myself to three of the mugs during dinner.

Dinner was quite fun, even after the food was consumed we hung around for awhile with lots of talking and laughing.  Katie seemed to really enjoy herself which was most important of course.  Cindy drove us home and I did not waste a lot of time before I showered and crashed in bed after setting the alarm for 4:55 am.

Despite the early alarm I still woke up prior to it going off.  I shot out of bed and was off and rolling.  Cindy was out of bed as well but I could tell early on she wasn’t feeling great.  She was having a lot of anxiety about the trip.  Leaving Elsa, flying, and dealing with the forecast arctic temperatures all contributed to the stress that she was feeling.  I recognized how she was feeling and how that could pan out during the trip, making it a miserable experience for her.  I told her that she should just stay home, something we actually talked about earlier in the week..  It wasn’t worth having her be upset and/or worried the entire time.  It took me several attempts at reassuring her I understood, wasn’t mad and was ok with going on the trip solo until she accepted it as the best choice in the situation.

So our plans changed, leaving Cindy’s luggage at home and bringing Elsa along in the car to drop me off at the airport.  Cindy of course felt very badly about the situation but I again told her it was ok and to not worry. We had a teary embrace as she dropped me off and I gave Elsa one last scratch on the head.  I headed into the airport alone but determined to still have a fun trip.

It didn’t take long for the luster to come off the travel day pretty quickly.  I first did not realize the difference between a TSA pre-check line and regular line.  After waiting a while in the pre-check line a stone faced, miserable, TSA guy told me I had to go in the regular line.  Evidently there is some stuff you have to do ahead of time to qualify for the expedited pre-check line that I did not do.

The flight to Atlanta was overbooked, I was kind of glad that I had an empty seat next to me that I paid for to give me a little room.  Well shortly before the door closed a stewardess was scanning the cabin and saw my empty seat.  She asked if my name was Cassidy.  I said no that is my girlfriend but she didn’t make the flight.  The woman says “oh ok”, turns around and heads back out the front of the plane.  Within 60 seconds a passenger who I assume was on stand by came rushing in to claim that seat that I had already paid for.

Now I was conflicted.  Sure I understand wanting to help the woman out by letting her have that seat but I don’t think it should have been done without consulting me or offering me some sort of compensation for allowing that seat to be resold.  I didn’t want to make a scene with the new passenger sitting next to me as it wasn’t her fault but it still pissed me off.  It did not seem like the proper way to handle the situation.

Soon the seat caper took a back seat to a much more annoying problem, dense fog.  The fog was restricting ground visibility below the required 1600 feet requirement.  The pilot informed us that he had no choice but to stay put until visibility increased, awesome. I knew we were in trouble when the crew started handing out food and drinks while we were sitting there. It was miserable for me, the cramped leg room made my sore right knee throb pretty much non-stop.  The scheduled 8:00Am flight did not take off until 9:19 according to my watch.

So now I had a new issue, my connecting flight.  It was scheduled to leave at 10:50 AM.  We were supposed to land about 5 minutes before that time.  As we approached the flight crew asked the cabin that people that did not have a pressing connection stay put to allow people like us to get off the plane quickly to try to make our connection.  Of course people did not care and clogged the aisle, preventing the people with pressing connections from getting out.  Human beings are awesome.

So once I finally hit the concourse I started speed walking the best I could.  Carrying my laptop bag with a bad knee meant running just would not work.  When I looked at the concourse map I hoped the walk from B1 to C35 wouldn’t be too bad.  It turned out to be very long, longer than it looked.  I arrived at the gate at 10:57 and the plane was already gone. Damn it.

So I made arrangements for the next flight which takes off a little before 2PM.  I also decided I was just going to stay at Patrick’s place in Pittsburgh tonight instead of the room I reserved at the Sheraton.  Luckily Cindy was able to call them and get a refund on the room despite it supposedly being a no refund reservation.  I contacted Patrick and let him know of the changes in plans.  He was cool with it all.

So after throwing down a sort of gross tuna melt sandwich I sat down to punch this out.  Obviously this trip is going to be a lot different for me going solo instead of having Cindy by my side.  I know my family is going to be disappointed she wasn’t able to make the trip.  Man, it is going to be cold, really, really cold.

So for a few months the water in the house has been a little problematic.  The smell of sulfur shows up sometimes, especially in the hot water and sometimes the water does not look as clear as it once did.  I had the water equipment replaced around five years ago by a local company that I have a good relationship with.  When they put the system in I had been dealing with around 10 years of poor water quality with the old equipment.  They highly recommended the performance of this system and it lived up to their claims.  The water quality in the house was much, much better than it ever was prior.

So anyway, last year the water guys were out doing well work and they said there was some maintenance that needed to be done on the water cleaners they only found about recently.  I could tell their attitude about the cleaners had now turned somewhat sour, despite mine still working well.

The guy from the water company came out yesterday tasked with looking at the equipment to see if he could address the problems we were experiencing.  I was not home but Cindy was.  The guy spent literally a couple minutes, just long enough to verify what model of equipment I had.  He briefly talked to Cindy and then left me a message to call him, which I did later.

So apparently they have now gone full tilt against the equipment I have and no longer sell it.  Although my units have been more or less trouble free, evidently other customers of theirs have had a lot of problems.  He said one option was to have the filtration media in my unit rebedded although it is also leaking a little bit in the top valve section.  The cost to do so was $1000 but he highly recommended against that course of action.

He thought I should replace the equipment altogether.  His first option was a system that sounded almost identical to what was pulled out.  It has this huge holding tank that has air injected into it to separate the sulfur.  Knowing how poorly that system worked for me before that was a non-option in my book.

Option two was something I was considering 5 years ago, a whole house RO (reverse osmosis) system. Small RO systems that fit under sinks are used a lot for drinking water.  I had one for a number of years.  The filtration for RO water is extremely thorough, giving you the best quality water possible.  Of course there are downsides.  The RO filtration process is slow so you need a large holding tank of purified water.  The filters require regular maintenance and replacement and are costly.  And the system itself is VERY expensive, the guy quoted me $6400 and a $500 trade in value for my old equipment.  I already knew the approximate price from 5 years ago although I hoped the price may have come down somewhat since. It didn’t.

I told Danny that when I talked to them 5 years ago I mentioned RO and was actually steered to what I had by their recommendation.  He acknowledged that they were all about those systems back then but no longer are as a result of the problems they have seen longer term.  He reiterated the benefits of RO which I already know, the cleanest water possible.  In a way it seems like overkill having purified water going into the toilets or out the hose bib.

I also pointed out to him that in addition to the huge up front costs, there is a lot more upkeep and maintenance costs.  He said they have either monthly or quarterly maintenance plans I could pick up if I didn’t want to do it myself.  If I got a system that expensive I might go for the maintenance to ensure it’s longevity.  A quarterly plan might add up to close to what I pay for water softener salt per year, which would no longer be necessary.

I was a bit frustrated by my options but told Danny I wasn’t going to pull the trigger on new equipment just yet.  If I decide to go that route it likely would need to wait until I see how my tax refund is shaping up for this year.  If I plan to stay in the house long term, RO might make sense.  We will see how things unfold in the next couple months.

I have been feeling rather worn out lately.  I am now at a week plus with limping around and it sort of sucks the fun out of your day.  The intense swelling which kept the pain pretty centered on the knee has gone down a little bit.  However it feels like the IT band on that side is sore now which sends the pain radiating up and down the side of my leg, all the way up to my hip.   If this was the first time this had happened I would have a lot more concern but I have been in this rodeo many, many times.  The only cure will be time and consistent stretching.

I made a pit stop on the way home at Sam’s to grab a couple items.  The store was not busy.  I was in and out of there very quickly.  However going that direction during that time of day meant I got dumped into the quagmire which is Immokalee Road rush hour traffic.  I didn’t get home until around 6pm after patiently inching along for the first couple miles after leaving.  The new year marks the start of true snowbird season in our area which means pretty much anything you want to do requires you to wait.

My last day of my extended three day weekend was very lazy.  Early in the morning I spent some energy doing additional cleaning in the chicken coop.  I pulled out the stand the nesting boxes are on and worked on the mountain of feathers, dust and sand that was wedged behind them.  It was pretty damn gross.  I used a couple of my battery powered tools to help in the process, the blower to blast out a lot of the junk and the battery powered shop vac I got for Xmas to suck up the rest.  I also dumped out the nesting boxes and refilled them with fresh shavings.  Peaches was the first one in the coop laying an egg after I finished and she seemed happy with the clean up in a chicken sort of way.

Cindy was teaching a class Monday morning so I decided to take Sadie and Elsa for a DD coffee ride.  This was the first time I have taken both dogs in the truck anywhere.  I knew it would be interesting to see how they would work out the seating arrangements.

In the old Tacoma, when I had Nicki and Sadie along it worked out well because Nicki preferred to lay on the floor in the back of the access cab while Sadie always rode shotgun.  There were multiple configurations tried during the ride, all of which were funny and cute.  The funniest of all was when Sadie had her head on the door while Elsa sat on Sadie’s side.  It didn’t look comfortable but Elsa stayed that way for quite awhile.

The rest of the day I only attended to some minor chores peppered in with a lot of WoW.  I have been working on some other characters that refresh the game for me since their play style and objectives are very different.

I did not go out on my EUC at all yesterday.  With my puffy right knee I just didn’t feel a strong urge to push it, again.

It’s nice to have two short work weeks in a row, if I could permanently swing a Howard Stern style three day work week that would be amazing.