More demo, switched sides, Streamlined

So part of my mystery illness of the last several months has been pain in the right side of my torso brought about by certain high exertion activities.  I just had a flare up last week while trying to do some weighted pull ups.   Well earlier this week I developed a pain in a very similar spot on my left side, except I don’t recall it being initiated by exercise. It seems pretty steady with intensity varied by my body position.

I’m not sure what the reason is for this latest joy of old age.  The only thing I thought about was when the CT scan was done one of the findings was a small kidney stone in the left kidney that was not blocking anything.  Perhaps that stone has matured into something more problematic.  I did have what they thought was a stone in my early 30’s back in PA.  My immediate treatment plan will be as it is with most things, ignore it until it goes away.

Today I am getting ANOTHER EUC delivered to the house but no, I did not buy it.  Ewheels, the dealer that I have bought most of my stuff from, sent me a demo model of the KingSong 18XL.  Earlier in the year they sent me a Z10 to test as well.  Basically I try out the wheel for a few days and do videos regarding my experience.  The dealer hopes that experience is a positive one that translates into sales for him.  That formula worked out very well for him with the Z10 so I understand why he was doing it again.

This time it’s sort of weird because I already own a KingSong 18L, the 18XL is very similar except it has a bigger battery and larger foot pedals.  So I will already know what to expect, which is to expect a high quality, fun machine, just more of it.  I am sure a lot of riding will be done this weekend to collect footage for the demo wheel plus we now have the scooter under roof which we need to put some serious miles on.

So far the holiday season has seemed weird for a few reasons.  The extremely early Thanksgiving has basically added an extra week of padding to the season which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  My shopping responsibilities this year have been greatly lessened as well.  I got a call from my dad last weekend to let me know that they have finally decided to not buy presents for all of the adults in the family, just the children. Dad said he talked to Pat and Meg and they agreed to this plan.

This is something Todd, Torrin and I had talked about and agreed upon years ago but somehow we still wound up buying for each other.  So dad’s call prompted me to reach out to Todd and Torrin and suggest that we once again just focus on gifts for the kids.  They both agreed but Todd said he always felt guilty about the idea of me buying for his kids with no reciprocation since I have no kids of my own.  I assured him it was totally fine and no feelings would be hurt in the process.

So I got the call from dad after I had already gotten him and my step mom a couple things which of course I will still send them.  And if I am being honest I am a bit conflicted in my feelings about the simplified present reality I am now in.  Yes it is nice to knock my people to buy for list  to at least half of what it has traditionally been.  However I also do genuinely like giving gifts to others, more so than receiving, something that I never would have said 25 years ago.  Not being able to do that as much this year will leave a bit of a hole in my holiday experience.  The big winners in this decision will be the kids as some of those funds that were distributed to others gifts can be consolidated into cooler things for them.