So I have a short week, taking off tomorrow to take Cindy for a colonoscopy. Getting the procedure seems to be in vogue right now as I also have a couple friends that recently had it done as well. The experience of the procedure is still fresh in my mind so I know Cindy has two unfun days ahead of her starting with today’s all liquid diet prep. Her procedure is a couple hours later in the day than mine was so she will be starving by tomorrow afternoon.
As I mentioned yesterday, the grass around the house is really drying out and I had mentioned that I was considering relocating some of the back yard sprinklers to better reach the chicken area. Well I walked around last night with my phone firing off the various zones on my Rachio wi-fi sprinkler controller. I found that the two sprinklers I was thinking of moving actually were in a good spot already, just outside the chicken fence line. The issue is the sprinklers themselves.
As I walked around setting off each zone one at a time (each zone has 6-8 sprinklers), I noticed a bunch of them were not oscillating back and forth as they should. I have had this problem a lot over the years and have replaced a number of the Rain Bird sprinkler heads as a result, only to have them do the same thing later. This weekend I am going to look to get a bunch of replacement heads and I won’t be getting the same model this time.
So I have been surprised that I have not gotten anything from AARP since turning 50. Hell many times they start sending you stuff before you even hit the old fart milestone. Well yesterday the wait was over, I received my official AARP card in the mail. Despite what it represents I will still join to take advantage of some of the “senior” discounts. It still seems surreal that I am old enough to qualify for such a thing.
If you would have told me 5 years ago that I would have a chicken coop in the back yard I would have laughed out loud. However today the chickens are an integrated part of our daily lives. Most nights when I get home I go out back to “say hi” to them. Saying hi means checking/cleaning their water, giving them some scratch grains, and their most favorite treat of all, dried meal worms. I just find the way they interact with us to be so funny. It’s endearing to have farm animals trust you to the degree our birds do. Out of our nine birds, only one, Lucy, is skittish around us. All the others we can pet and hold pretty easily.
Speaking of the chickens, the grass in their area is really starting to brown due to winter dry season. I am considering relocating two of the sprinklers that are closer to the house into the the chicken area to prevent it all from dying. I spent a ton of time, effort and money over last summer adding sod to help raise the ground level. I don’t want it all turning to dust. Non-Floridians are normally surprised by just how arid our winters can be, contrasted with the daily rain we receive during wet season.
So yesterday I was at one of our larger remote branches and suddenly heard someone say “Do you have a YouTube channel?” With a surprised look on my face I looked up and saw the question was coming from the security guard. He went on to tell me he is a 3D printer hobbyist like me and has seen a number of my 3d printing videos. He said he heard my voice and recognized it immediately.
We talked a little bit, he has five printers as I do so he is as deep if not deeper into it than I am. It was the first time I have been recognized out in public by a stranger solely from my channel, it was an odd but cool experience at the same time. The channel has now added another 10% to it’s subscriber base in the last couple months and the channel is closing in on 2.5 million views.
So last night when I put the chickens to bed I immediately noticed that Pumpkin was out of place. For some reason she was under the nesting boxes on the floor, in a corner. I picked her up and placed her on the perch but she looked uncomfortable. Cindy just happened to come in the coop while I was doing this. I told her where Pumpkin was and how she looked a bit odd to me.
When we looked at her more it sort of looked like she might need to lay an egg. It is not unusual for the hens to sometimes drop an egg during the night although it doesn’t happen often. Well, with Peaches fall and ultimate death several weeks back I didn’t want to take any chances. I pulled back the netting we cover the nesting boxes with at night and placed Pumpkin in there so she could lay an egg if she needed to and that she would not be at risk of falling if something else was wrong.
This morning when I woke up I looked at the coop camera and saw she was in the box with her head down. I didn’t see any movement so I was concerned. I then used my phone to turn on the light in the coop remotely to see if she moved. I still didn’t see anything however after the coop door opened up automatically at 6:30 I saw she was up and about which brought out a literal sigh of relief. I don’t need any more abrupt chicken deaths in my life.
I made this last night. Katie still has her mail delivered to our house so it can pile up in between her pick ups. The 3D printed mail/key holder should be just the ticket to keep it safe and organized moving forward.
Saturday morning I got up to do my run. I knew it was supposed to be cool but I didn’t expect it to be cold. Well the thermometer in the car read 45 degrees on the way to the track. I was glad I chose a long sleeve t-shirt to run in. It took me at least three laps until my internal body temperature started to regulate against the cold air. The run went as most do, thoughts of quitting early to thoughts of relief as I finish up.
After finishing up chicken chores and weeding we headed out with Elsa to run some errands. One of the things we picked up was a new strainer basket for the pool pump as well as a new hose for the inline chlorinator. It is a hose that connects the chlorinator to the return water feed. I have futzed with this hose several times over the years. It is installed at an odd angle and has a tendency to want to collapse on itself, making it useless. I have replaced it already a few times only to have it collapse shortly thereafter. After some careful manipulation of the support spring and hose I think I finally have it as it should be. Even though it was a very minor repair, I was able to skim some satisfaction from finally getting it installed right.
Cindy and I made plans to go to Seasons 52 to celebrate our five year anniversary. I had tried early in the week to get reservations but the time block between 3:45 and 8:15 was booked solid. We decided we would just go there and hang at the bar to wait for a table.
When we got there at 5:30 the lot was already quite full. We went inside fully prepared to wait, awhile. We did not realize that Seasons 52 had a similar layout to Carrabas. The right side of the house is the formal dining room where the reservations are held. However around the bar on the left there are a booths that are first come first serve. They were all full but there was only one couple waiting for one ahead of us. We wound up sitting down after 10 minutes or less, an unexpected outcome.
Our dinner was very good. Cindy and I both cleaned our plates and the little miniature desert shot glasses we ordered. It was probably one of the more expensive dinners for two but it was a special occasion worthy of the effort. We both left amazed that we somehow managed to complete the dinner in roughly two hours, travel included. Saturday night we watched the Tom Cruise version of The Mummy. It was entertaining enough and had an ending that I definitely did not expect. It was a notch below what I normally get out of Tom’s movies but I’d still go B+ overall.
Sunday was a beautiful morning. Cindy and I went to North Collier Park to ride around, her on the big Segway I2, me on the tiny Mten3. Not far into the ride I heard a loud beep come from my wheel. I looked down and saw the battery indicator was not full, which it normally would be. I quickly realized that I must have forgotten to recharge the wheel after I rode it to Dunkin Donuts a couple weeks ago. The battery level indicator showed about half full so I thought I would be fine for our ride. I babied the wheel for another two or three miles but the beeping soon became incessant so we had to cut the ride short. Even with the abbreviated ride we had fun.
The rest of our Sunday was laid back. I had a number of 3D prints cooking and Cindy was hard core into her crafting. I also got several hours of time in WoW which was fun since the week prior had little time for such activity. We emerged from the weekend happy with how it flowed and looking forward to the next.
So Cindy and I headed out for the fair shortly after I got home. The temp was right around 70 and forecast to drop so I bundled up, knowing just how cold it can feel at the fair this time of year based on prior experiences. I had on jeans, a t-shirt, Under Armour Cold Gear long sleeve shirt and a hooded sweatshirt on top. Cindy wore a couple layers too but I told her that I thought it might not be enough based on her lack of tolerance for cold. It wasn’t.
So I immediately noticed after parking that they really switched up the layout of the fair this year. They have been tweaking it in recent years but this was even more dramatic. They relocated the normal entrance about 100 yards to the south which was odd. It cost me 10 bucks to get in. Cindy gets in for free since she is a veteran which is very cool.
We were both hungry so we decided to grab our traditional, once a year fair dinner of arepas with a side order of maduros that we split. It was good as usual but filling. We then headed into the barn area which is one of the highlights where we got to see the various farm animals. They didn’t seem to have as many animals as in years past but that might be because we were in the latter half of the fair, it seems the judging was already done so some owners may pull their animals out. We didn’t get to go into the large animal side of the barn unfortunately as it was closed off to the public.
We caught a few shows as we walked the grounds, including the Hansen’s Spectacular, a family acrobatic act that was corny but endearing at the same time. As I watched I wondered if this was how the family made a living, it just did not seem possible based on the handful of people in the stands. I just can’t believe county fairs pay these performers much at all. We also caught part of a funny magic act and a Ninja Warrior style show that was entertaining.
We made our obligatory stop into the petting zoo tent where Cindy got to feed and interact with a bunch of animals. I let her do most of the feeding although I did enjoy giving the camel a few slices of carrot.
I had much less of a fair food gluttony than normal. Other than the arepa and maduro the only other thing I had was some hot cocoa. I bet my fair calorie consumption was half of my historical average.
As I feared, Cindy was freezing her ass off once the sun went down. We headed out around 9pm. Overall the fair seemed like it had less stuff than I was accustomed to but we still had a fun time. If it was a few degrees warmer I would have been happy to explore some more.
Before we left I had started a print of another revision of the drumsticks I designed for Cindy. I added a ball to the top so it looked more like a drumstick and less like a spear. When we got home I checked on the print to find the print head moving back and forth in mid-air with nothing coming out, lovely.
It appeared that I developed a clog in the Bowden tube. Based on past experience with clogs, some of which set me off into a black hole of frustration, I decided to just pull the original tube and replace it with an upgraded Capricorn PTFE Bowden tube I bought awhile back. Again having past experience with the problem was helpful. I now know that if you try to replace anything having to do with the hot end, it needs to be HOT when you do it. Otherwise hardened plastic will make your efforts futile.
It took a little futzing until I completed the swap out but I was eventually successful. I restarted the print job, printing two copies of the model at the same time. This morning we were rewarded with two perfectly legitimate looking drumsticks with FFC embossed into them. Of course the true test will be once Cindy puts them through a few sessions to see how they hold up to real world use.
Last night I did a video with my thoughts on my dash cam mirror now that I have had it for a week or so. I narrated on top of some of the footage which includes an idiot in a Mustang cutting in front of five other vehicles, including myself when exiting the gym parking lot. The footage looked very clean. I expected the video to include audio but didn’t realize I had the mic on the Sendow turned off.
Cindy has had an idea about using drumsticks as part of a fitness class. She asked if I could find a model and 3D print her some. I did indeed find a model for drumsticks but they were designed as three pieces you pressed together. I printed a couple sets but they would not go together completely and the joints would surely be a failure point.
I got the idea of making my own drumstick in Tinkercad, utilizing the huge build height of the CR-10 to print the stick as one solid piece. I set the print off before bed and awoke this morning to a completed drumstick on end, very cool.
That was version 1.0 of the model. I am currently printing version 1.1 that has Cindy’s website initials embossed on the side of it. I already have version 1.2 planned which will include a ball at the top so the drumstick will be less spear-like.
Tonight Cindy and I will be making our annual visit to the county fair. It is always an interesting experience, always.
If it was possible to create a blueprint for how I would like most weekends to be it would be like this past one. The weather was perfect with cool mornings and pleasantly warm afternoons with an abundance of blue sky.
Saturday morning I got out and resumed my running program after a two week hiatus due to illness. Although the act of running three and a half miles was difficult as expected, it was offset by the sense of accomplishment afterward. The cool air temps in the mid-50’s definitely was beneficial.
When I got back Cindy let me know that I managed to catch another one of the palm rats, bringing my total to four. As with the others I drove the little annoying bastard a couple miles away and let him loose into the undergrowth to fend for himself. I know there is at least one more adult in the coop area. If I can catch him I will finally feel ready to rerun the wires for the DVR system.
My new routine of making sure there are no mice in the coop when the door is closed seems to be a solid plan. Before when I had the coop door on an analog timer I was never quite sure when it would close. The end result was most of the time I put the chickens to bed the door was still open and would close later. Well if a mouse entered during that interim it would spend the entire night chewing on whatever it could to get out.
A couple weeks ago, when I installed the new wi-fi router, to replace the mouse damaged one, I also installed a Wemo smart switch on the coop door. I now know exactly when the door closes and I make sure to go out there after that happens. When I tend to the chickens I now include probing all possible mouse hiding spots with the broom handle to make sure none are inside the coop. That, paired with the ultrasonic rodent repellent we put in there seems to have kept the inside of the coop pest free.
Saturday after completing some chores Cindy, Elsa and I headed out for a long errand run, stopping at something like a half dozen places along the way. One of those places was the office to swap out a failed hard drive. Another was Tractor Supply, a place we only have been to a couple of times. Despite being a lot smaller than Rural King, I liked their selection of several things more. We finished up eating lunch outside a pizza place where Elsa chilled under the table while we enjoyed a good slice of pizza.
I got notice that Patrick’s birthday gift was delivered. I sent him the Segway S1 that I bought at Christmas. It was sort of my plan all along to give it to him. It is a cool little wheel that will be good for Pat and his girlfriend to learn on.
Saturday night Cindy and I watched Dark Tower, our latest rental. I remember when the movie came out a lot of people that read the book were not happy with the film adaptation. Since I never read the book, I did not have that bar to measure it against. To me it was entertaining although a bit strange to see Matthew McConaughey play the villain. I’d give it a solid B rating.
Sunday morning we slept in, for us, to almost quarter till 8. Mid-morning Cindy and I headed out to the Naples Greenway with the big Segway I2 in the back of the truck. I discovered that transporting the Segway is a two person job, at least when it comes to loading. The unit is somewhere around 120 pounds which I normally could throw around pretty easily, the issue is the size and design of the I2 makes it damn near impossible to one man it as there is nothing to really grab on to. I can manage to lower it from the truck myself but I utilized Cindy to help me load it at the Greenway.
Our objective for the ride was to locate the new bridge that connects the Greenway to downtown Naples. It was Cindy’s first time riding the Segway I2 out in public. She was conservative at first but soon got adept at leaning into turns with her entire body. We found the new bridge and it was very impressive, a beautiful and long structure. It spills out at what will be an awesome resident park in the near future called Baker Park. It connects to the newly renovated Central Avenue.
Central now is very bike friendly with large and clearly marked bike lanes. We decided to ride all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. It felt great to be able to ride all the way to the beach using bike safe routes. On the way back we ate lunch at The Bowl. We both had all fruit concoctions that consisted of acacia berry, bananas, granola, honey, hemp seed hearts, blueberries, and a couple other things. It was very good.
The ride was much longer than I expected and the used batteries on the I2 performed much better with Cindy at the controls. The slower speed and her lighter weight only consumed three bars of battery life out of eight. We both really enjoyed the ride and would like to maybe actually spend some time on the beach the next time we do the same route.
Late afternoon Sunday I got out and washed my Tacoma. I finally got around to applying some paint sealant that was highly rated on Amazon. On the bottle it claimed how you could do a complete vehicle in 10 minutes! Well although it was less labor intensive than conventional wax, I still busted my ass for at least 45 minutes applying the sealant to the Tacoma. You only work in small sections, first applying with a circular motion followed by back and forth to finish up. Since it is a clear product, it is annoying to try to determine where you stopped and started since you have no wax haze to guide you. I guess the first time the truck gets wet will determine how good the product is.
The rest of Sunday was spent editing video, creating 3D projects, and playing some WoW. It really was a great couple days and was a reminder that I could seriously retire and never have to worry about being bored.
Don’t have much to share this morning, I guess I spent my verbal currency shooting this video.
This weekend I hope to get back into full normalcy, including restarting my weekend 5K running routine. Outside of that I expect chores and hobbies to fulfill most of the weekend.
Oh I forgot to mention that I got some good news regarding my roof replacement. Originally it was scheduled to happen sometime in June. That timeline has now been accelerated to mid-April which is cool, allowing the work to complete before rainy season begins. Replacing the shingles with a metal roof will change the look and sound of the house (when it rains) dramatically.
One good thing about the hurricane repairs taking so long is I have not had to dip into my newly reopened home equity line of credit. With the extended timeline I am hoping I may be able avoid pulling out additional money at all to complete the repair which would be cool.
We have had an abnormally late blast of cold air the past few days which I actually sort of enjoy. However I did not expect there to be ice on my windshield this morning. Cindy said the hose we use to clean the chicken coop was frozen as well. It was weird because the temperature according to the car was 41 degrees. During the drive in it dipped as low as 39 degrees but still that is a good distance from the normal freezing mark, making the icy conditions seem unlikely.
My coughing and carrying on has definitely been on a steady decline although I still feel like my energy reserves are still being depleted faster than normal. A side effect has been my sleeping more solidly than normal the last week or so, a good change for me. Bad sleep has become something I have become more accustomed to as I continue to age.
Last night Cindy was in the backyard on the big Segway rolling around. For some reason Elsa finds this very exciting. She responds by SPRINTING around the backyard, it’s very funny to watch.
I almost had some progress in my battle against mice in the coop area. Cindy said one was in the trap this morning but after she moved the trap and set it elsewhere the mouse managed to get out the trap door. We have not had any more mouse activity inside the coop mostly because my nighttime routine of putting the chickens to bed now includes me probing the various possible hiding spots of the rodents with the handle of the broom. I did get some additional intelligence info on the enemy the other night. I know there are at least two of the palm rats occupying the space as I saw both scurrying down the camera wires in the run the other night.
Last night I was doing some 3D printing, including this ornate sugar skull model. I printed it on the AnyCubic i3 Mega which has become the favorite of the five printers I own. It just works and I love the control panel as well as the build surface which holds prints on tight when warm but allows them to pop off effortlessly when cool.
So I read that the military parade that Donald so badly wants, you know the type you see in North Korea and Russia, is actually going to happen. It just seems like such a monumental waste of time, money and resources to serve no practical purpose other than stroking Donald’s immense ego.
There is a reason there hasn’t been a military parade in something like 25 years, they make no sense. Of course not making sense is a staple of this administration so I guess maybe, this makes sense? F it.
So I have been surprised that I have not gotten anything from AARP since turning 50. Hell many times they start sending you stuff before you even hit the old fart milestone. Well yesterday the wait was over, I received my official AARP card in the mail. Despite what it represents I will still join to take advantage of some of the “senior” discounts. It still seems surreal that I am old enough to qualify for such a thing.
