So my Monday evening was quite productive. As soon as I got home I headed outside to replace the main drive belt on the tractor. Months ago I had an oil leak that got all over the existing drive belt. As a result it has become glazed and slippery, causing the belt to slip on any terrain that is not flat. I could barely go up some of the hills at the house at this point. I had done this job once before several years ago when I replaced a bunch of pulleys in the drive system so I at least had a rough idea of what to do. To get access the mower deck had to be pulled all the way out. Once underneath it just takes patience and a tolerance for getting covered in oil soaked organic material as you remove and install the new belt. After completing the reassembly I did a quick hill test and was pleased I no longer faded while climbing a grade.
Before dinner I also was able to get my 18L back together. I ripped it apart Sunday to charge each of the two batteries independently, which they did successfully. Now that it is together I have to ride it some tonight and see if it will charge the batteries to full while connected together. I certainly hope they do but I am not real optimistic about it.
Finally before bed I removed the front footpad sensor from my One Wheel XR. It is being sent out to California to get repaired/replaced to address the random issue where the pad does not disengage the motor properly. This has caused it to run away from me quite a few times as well as dump me on my ass. The idea of being without my One Wheel for a period of time bothered me enough that I ordered a brand new pad set, just so I have spares in the future.
On Friday I talked about my problems with FedEx and how I laughed at their theory that the label fell off the box somehow. Well apparently that is what actually happened. In a call back to the trace department Friday morning they said they found the box based on my description. I had the option for them to relabel it and have it delivered Saturday or I could pick it up on Friday. Despite it being a roughly 60 mile round trip I chose the latter option. I used my lunch hour to drive to the FedEx distribution center and get my new wheel.
I was sort of surprised at the security at the facility. It was surround by a 10 foot fence with barbed wire lining the top. I wasn’t allowed to actually go into the building, instead you speak through an intercom and somebody brings the package out to you, outside the fence line, some 30 yards outside the building. This practice seems like it would have serious flaws considering the frequency of downpours in SW Florida as there was absolutely no protective canopy or cover of any kind.
I wasted no time and unboxed the wheel right there in the parking lot. I wanted to make sure all was well after it’s cross ocean and cross country journey. It powered up and I was able to ride a slow loop around the parking lot. I left it unboxed so I could take it into the office and let it charge up during the afternoon.
Friday night I did something odd around 8PM. I told Cindy I wanted to go and get my run out of the way. At first Cindy objected but when I told her how it would be nice to not have a 6AM alarm to deal with Saturday the idea sounded better to her. It was not ideal circumstances as we had already downed our Friday night pizza so I was worried that I could get side stitches but the idea was in my head and had to be executed.
So I quickly threw on my running clothes and headed over to the track. I also had my new 18L in the trunk to try out for some night riding after the run. So I have not run at night in a very long time. I have done a couple night time 5k’s but I don’t think I ever did a training run at that time of day. During the first half lap I felt pretty strong, I recall thinking “Maybe I will feel less miserable running at this time of day”. That thought was very fleeting. It did not take long until the heat and humidity felt oppressive, despite the sun being down. It was once again a run of survival, not speed. Lap 13 felt like it would never come.
I was a sweaty, panting mess afterward but I still wanted to try out the wheel some more. My legs were pretty spent so I felt a little unsure of myself as I got rolling. I made sure to do slow, big arcing turns, doing nothing that was tough on the legs. I was impressed by how good the headlight is on the wheel, making riding in the dark not a big deal at all. The King Song wheel felt smooth and powerful, as I expected.
It felt nice to not have to set the alarm as we laid down in bed that night. It was going to be a treat to have two days in a row where we can wake up whenever we want. Well that fantasy was shattered about 2AM in the morning. Cindy awoke first which woke me up. I was greeted by the overwhelming stench of dog fart. It was really bad. I tried my normal tactic of just covering my face with a pillow until it dissipated. When that didn’t work I told Alexa to turn on the ceiling fan. It was strange, nothing was making the smell lessen.
Cindy was almost retching from the stench. Elsa does fart sometimes but not often, it was odd that this was so bad and so persistent. Cindy got up to go into the bathroom, when she flipped the light on the true nature of the disaster was revealed. Cindy had a look on her face like she just witnessed a murder, Elsa had covered the bed in diarrhea, oh my…
So Cindy was freaking out and immediately launched herself into massive sterilization procedures, stripping the bed and anything related. I took Elsa outside immediately where she had more episodes of the shits. I felt bad for her. It took awhile until she was able to stop crouching in poop position. When we came in Cindy had stuff in the washing machine and bleach in hand where she was sanitizing left and right. The entire house stunk, we had fans on, windows open, candles burning, and the AC cranked down, all in an effort to remediate the stench. It took awhile but eventually it aired out. By the time we remade the bed and got back to sleep I bet a couple hours had transpired. It was so gross it was almost comical. Needless to say we did not awaken Saturday morning feeling rested.
Despite the rough night I once again had a sizeable plate of things I wanted to get done Saturday. Originally I hoped with the aid of Cindy I could get it all done in the morning. That got sidetracked because she needed to take Elsa to the vet to see what was up as she still had similar diarrhea once we woke up, thankfully outside this time. So I tackled coop duty, weeding, weed whacking, pool maintenance, tractor tie rod replacement and the mowing solo, consuming the day until close to 4PM.
Despite being wiped out I wanted to get a DD ride in on my new wheel. I had it on the charger overnight to give me a full charge, or so I thought. When I turned it on I noticed the app said I only had 76% charge which made little sense. I wrote it off as a glitch and headed out. The ride went well. The 18L feels fast and smooth, a very comfortable wheel to cover long distances on. The only negative was the battery level being lower than it should be, causing some unexpected and rather jarring tilt back on the way home.
Saturday night we watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a movie by JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame. This movie is set in the same world and general timeframe of Harry Potter. I was a big fan of the HP movies and I read three of the books. I did not feel this new effort matched up although there were a lot of the same cool things going on. I guess I just did not like the main characters in the story line nearly as much. I’d only give it a B.
So Saturday night I once again put the wheel on the charger, expecting it to fully charge overnight. When I woke up Sunday I had a green light on the charger but once again when I checked the battery level it showed only 76% full. Great, I officially have a problem. Despite the issue I took the 18L, the One Wheel and Cindy’s skateboard out in the morning. We did a short ride near Dunkin Donuts were Cindy showed her returning board skills. It was fun but hot.
So I reported my battery issues to my reseller. He asked if I’d be willing to rip apart my wheel to do some further testing. Of course I wasn’t keen on the idea of opening up my brand new wheel but it was better than trying to ship the wheel out and wait for a repair/exchange. He wanted me to remove both sides of the wheel and disconnect one of the two batteries and try to charge. In my two prior charging sessions the batteries never showed voltage over 78 volts which was another symptom. The batteries should be reading 84V after a full charge.
So I did as instructed. I felt pain as I pulled apart my pristine wheel. Doing so at least gave me an appreciation of the build quality of the unit compared the Gotway wheels I have owned for a couple years. King Song is at another level in QC. After disconnecting one of the batteries I attached the charger to see what would happen.
When I checked on it a couple hours later the light was green I fired up the wheel and saw the battery was reading 100% and 84.2 volts, just like it should. Wow, ok so I guess the other battery pack was bad, pulling down the overall voltage. I reported the result to my dealer, thinking we definitively found the problem. However a little later I thought to myself, just to be sure I should do the same test with the other pack. Imagine my surprise when the other pack, when charged by itself was also fine, reaching full 84.2 volts. The behavior was baffling but my plan now is to put it back together, ride it, recharge it and see if the batteries recharge as they should. Of course it isn’t fun being a guinea pig but it’s better than being without the wheel for an extended period of time.
Sunday night we went out to dinner with Cindy’s family for her mom’s birthday. In total there were something like 15-16 people that congregated at Longhorn’s Steakhouse for the celebration. Of course I opted for one of the handful of non-steak dinner options. I took the edge off the social anxiety by downing almost three full 20 ounce Miller Lite drafts during the dinner. It worked like a charm.
I wrapped up my weekend with yet another EUC live streaming event. I was sort of tired as we started the show an hour later than normal but it worked out ok, I think.
So I have been patiently waiting for my KingSong 18L EUC to arrive for several months. The wheel literally was on a slow boat from China until it landed in California late last week. From there it was handed off to FedEx ground for delivery to Southwest Florida. The wheel had a delivery date scheduled for yesterday, August 2nd. As I was tracking it’s progress across the country I was getting excited as I saw it actually had already crossed into Florida on Sunday. Wow, maybe I’ll actually get it a couple days early?? Well things have definitely not gone as I hoped.
After crossing the Florida border, for some reason it took a full day to get to central Florida where it arrived just after midnight, early Tuesday morning. Normally once something hits central Florida we will get it the next day. Well not in this case, the box instead sat in Central Florida until Wednesday evening where it finally got a departure scan at the Orlando distribution center.
When I woke up Thursday morning I expected to see an arrival and departure scan at the Fort Myers facility with a “on truck for delivery” status. Nope, the status had not changed since the previous night, great…. So I went throughout the day checking the status and seeing the same aggravating lack of new information. I held out hope that maybe they just missed a scan somehow and the box was actually on a truck and headed my way. Well of course you can guess that did not happen.
So last night I called FedEx and asked what was going on. Of course the phone rep is looking at the same information I was and had no explanation when I pointed out the incredibly slow movement of the box once it hit Florida. The best they could do was open up a “tracing case”. I had someone from that department call me up and ask for details about the contents of the box. Again when I asked why this would happen the only guess she came up with was maybe the label came off the package. Yea, thanks, I’m sure that’s it….
I am hoping that the box was not either damaged or stolen but that would be just my luck. I will be rattling some chains at FedEx big time today, you can bet on that.
I expected to be spending last night unboxing and trying out the new wheel. Instead I used a good portion of the evening plowing through my book. When I turned off the light before bed I only had a chapter or two to go. This weekend I hoped to get a ton of KingSong riding/testing in. I may still get a lot of riding in but it may be on my OneWheel instead. Of course there is stuff to do around the house, a variable constant.
Last night when I got home I decided to make a video regarding some odd/harsh comments I received on my One Wheel video from Sunday. Harsh comments are not unusual but this particular exchange just really didn’t make sense to me. Instead of recanting everything I already said in the video, just take a look and see for yourself. In a nutshell this person thought that somehow I was encouraging people to do dangerous things on their One Wheel.
I followed up with doing some testing of the front foot pad on my board. There have been multiple occasions where the board kept moving after I jumped off it, which is not supposed to happen.
So once again I feel very fortunate to have gotten the mowing done Sunday as Monday was almost an all day rain event, once again submerging large areas of our property. When I got home I wasted little time before reconnecting the sump pump I have in the back yard of the chicken area. It does a decent job of pumping the water to the big drainage canal on our property line. That area that I elevated with top soil and sod is still well above the water level, I guess I need to expand that area as time, motivation and money allows.
I got the newest book in the World of Warcraft series, Before the Storm. It is timed with the release of a new expansion to the game I have loved for over a dozen years, which happens August 14th. I am trying to finish it before the game is released as it gives the back story to the game. At this point I am around halfway done so I should be able to accomplish that goal.
Last night I was reading on the loveseat. It was storming outside so Elsa came running to me for protection. We have developed a technique for sharing the small piece of furniture, even when I’m laying on it where I prop my feet on the back so Elsa can jam herself in between my rear end and the arm rest. After finishing a chapter my eyes were heavy. Cindy snapped this cute picture during that time period.
I just felt really wiped out. Maybe it’s from the emotional weekend with all of the Lucy problems. I haven’t been sleeping all that great either. My latest trend is waking up 60-90 minutes before the alarm and just rolling around in anticipation of it going off. Anticipation may be the wrong word as I am certainly not excited once Alexa starts playing the wake up tone.
So after Lucy’s miraculous recovery from being on her back with feet in the air Thursday and a night in our tub she seemed pretty alert on Friday morning. She seemed to actually be pretty normal. As a precaution we put her back in the chicken area but into the chicken tractor so she would be isolated from the other hens, just in case. We put a few big chunks of watermelon in there with her, she wasted no time going to town on it. It seemed amazing that this was the same chicken that was on her back the day before.
So when I got home from work Friday I looked out the window and was glad to see Lucy standing in the tractor and not on her back. I walked out there to let her out. Although she was standing she seemed off and her face looked very pale. She continued to stand there as I tended to the other chickens. As I was moving stuff out of the tractor I noticed a few drops of blood on the frame. I quickly looked at Lucy and did not see any blood on her feet so I wasn’t sure what was up.
When Cindy got home I told her how Lucy was acting odd. Cindy looked at her and noticed some blood on her beak. She looked at her bad wing and found something horrible. Evidently Lucy spent a good portion of the day pecking herself, right around the swollen area. There was an ugly bloody wound as a result. I could only imagine why she did this, perhaps the swollen area was hurting her and she was trying to do whatever she could to relieve the pain. Whatever the reason, we now had another problem to deal with. We had to try to bandage the area in a way that she would not be able to peck herself.
I held Lucy as Cindy did the best she could with the bandages we had. I felt terrible. After covering the area we again set her up in our bathroom where we could keep an eye on her. She was acting very lethargic and I thought we may lose her Friday night. Low and behold we woke up Saturday morning and she seemed alert, her resiliency was pretty amazing.
So I figured we will put her out in the open with the other chickens, perhaps being isolated and bored lead to her pecking herself. We immediately threw more melon in the yard which Lucy and the other chickens started working on immediately. Once again, besides a swollen, bandaged wing, she seemed pretty normal. I left the hens be as I worked on some other stuff in the yard. Later in the morning I glanced out there and saw a chicken on her back, feet in the air, by the melons, it was Lucy.
I ran out there and she was looking at me so I at least knew she was alive. She was flat one her back with her wing bandages laying on the ground next to her, wtf? I scooped her up and took her inside the coop to one of the nesting boxes. She sat there with her mouth open like she was hot but otherwise seemed pretty ok, this was almost a carbon copy of what happened on Thursday. So once Lucy calmed down we again wrapped her up using better bandage supplies we bought from CVS that morning. We put her back out in the yard and this time threw corn on the cob in there. Once again all of the birds, including Lucy, went nuts for it.
So late afternoon Cindy said she saw a chicken in an odd position in front of the run. I went out and once again Lucy was on her back, looking at me, with her bandages by her side. I then started to realize what was happening. She wanted the bandages off so badly that she dropped to her back and used her feet to grab them and pull them off. However she was physically not able to flip herself back upright after doing so. I felt terrible that the bandages were bothering her that much but I felt we had to prevent her from being able to peck the open wound.
So once again we wrapped her up. When I took her back out to the run I stood there to observe. She stumbled backwards as she tried to pull the same trick, making noise like she was in pain which broke my heart. As she fell to the sand, one of the other hens, Pumpkin made an aggressive move towards Lucy which I immediately shut down. I scooped Lucy up and took her back in the house, it was our third night of having an indoor chicken. Before bed you could see she was still trying to get the bandage off but too tired to do so. I totally expected to wake up Sunday morning to have her be alert and fine, again.
Well instead shortly before 4 AM Cindy awoke when she heard a noise in the bathroom. We got up and went inside just as Lucy moved her legs for the last time. We literally watched her stop breathing as her eyes were closed and her head was tucked down. It instantly brought tears to my eyes but in reality I was relieved she finally passed. She was suffering and was not going to recover. I was glad her suffering was at it’s end but sad and somewhat guilty that we were not able to save her. Later Sunday morning we buried Lucy in the back of the property, next to Peaches. It was a solemn and sad event. Lucy, despite being the most skittish and scared around us was amazingly tough and sweet in the end.
There were non-chicken related things during the weekend as well. I installed a new 12V battery into the Prius since the installed battery was starting to read low which can cause of myriad of issues with the car. The battery is located in the trunk and is not convenient to replace but not all that tough either as illustrated in the video.
On Sunday morning I was feeling very sad about Lucy’s passing. I tried to temper that sadness by taking the OneWheel down to the Greenway to ride. It was my best ride yet with the board. The varied terrain and twisting pathways made for a very enjoyable riding experience, more fun than any prior ride I had there on EUC’s. I took the board all the way to the gulf and back. You can get a good sense of how much fun it was from the video.
The hybrid battery installer was supposed to arrive early afternoon to replace the Prius pack for the third time. of course that ETA was missed. While I was waiting I decided to get out and mow despite very threatening skies. I mowed through several rain outbreaks, luckily none of them were deluge intensity. As always, it felt great to have the task completed.
The installer said he was delayed in Miami and showed up somewhere around 6PM. I asked him if normally they have to come back multiple times to replace packs. He said out of the 100 or so repairs he has done I am only the second customer that had two failures, lucky me. Once again Jonathan and his dad worked quickly, getting a new pack installed in roughly an hour. He said I should be good to go but once again, if I have any problems to let them know. I assured him I would do exactly that.
It was an emotional, rough weekend. I look forward to smoother waters ahead.
So late yesterday afternoon I got a message from Cindy to call her ASAP which is never a good thing. When I called her she was crying, she told me that Lucy was gone. She said she didn’t see her come out when treats were put down. She was looking on the cameras to see her but couldn’t see anything other than Lucy coming out for some food and water around 11. She got on her knees and finally saw Lucy laying under the coop by one side. She was laying in an awkward position, motionless and Cindy said she did not respond in any way. Hearing this news immediately sent a wave of emotion over me. I told her I would try to get out early to take care of it. Cindy had to go teach a spin class.
So the entire drive home I was alternating between sadness and dread of the task of extracting Lucy from under the coop. I knew it would be emotionally crushing for me. We had tried so hard to nurse her back to health. When I thought back to the way Lucy grabbed Cindy’s finger the night before it made me tear up to think that was maybe her way of saying goodbye.
After changing I headed outside with the pool brush in hand for the gruesome task. I figured the long extendable handle would allow me to reach Lucy regardless of how far under the deck she was. After laying down some plastic I layed on my side and saw Lucy’s body laying there. The visual burst open the emotional floodgates, I broke down crying for a minute or so.
I calmed down and focused on getting her body out. I fished the pole past Lucy and then started bringing it in. As it touched her body her one leg shot up in the air. I stopped in horror, I thought it was some sort of post death muscle reaction. When I tried to resume pulling her towards me, I heard it, she was making noise….. oh my God, she isn’t dead. I was horrified and hopeful at the same time.
So I ran to the outside of the coop to the side she was on. It seemed impossible that the bird was alive, her head and neck were twisted back in a very unnatural looking way but her eyes were half open. All of a sudden I was in emergency rescue mode. There was no way I was going to try to pull her out using the pool brush, I instead needed to get through the hardware cloth that the deck opening is covered with. I ran up to the garage and grabbed tools. I returned and feverishly started prying out staples and cutting the hardware cloth in two spots so I could fold it down like a flap. Once I got access I very carefully lifted Lucy out, her neck returned to normal position and she seemed to be very weak but holding on.
I carried her into the coop and set her into one of the nesting boxes. She was able to sit there while I went inside to get some water and yogurt, one of her favorite treats. It took some time and patience but I eventually got her to take some water and eat some of the yogurt. I stayed out there with her for over two hours until Cindy returned home. By that time she had definitely perked up as she ate quite a bit of yogurt off the spoon I was holding. She even stood up and walked unsteadily to another nesting box and plopped down there.
Cindy was amazed this is the same bird she had seen earlier laying motionless under the coop. We agreed that we should let Lucy stay in the house overnight to see how she is. There was no guarantee she would make it through the night so we would rather have her close to us. We set her up in the cat carrier with a bed of shavings, water and some scratch grains. Before bed I saw her eating some of the grains, another good sign.
So when trying to figure out what happened to put her in a near death state it was a crapshoot. She did lose a considerable amount of blood over the last couple of days before we could get it stopped. Maybe her blood pressure was really low as a result and she passed out. Maybe she had a stroke, maybe she had a mini-heart attack, we will never know. All I know is she is alive and kicking now.
This morning we took her back outside to the chicken area. We were cautious and separated her by setting her up in the portable chicken tractor. She appeared to be doing ok, hungrily chowing down on the piece of water melon we put in there. I will be closely monitoring her over the weekend of course. Who knows how much time she has left but I know I am thankful that she has more of it. Never in my lifetime did I have a pet that I thought was dead turn out not to be so. It was an emotional roller coaster that will not be soon forgotten.
So on Tuesday and once again yesterday the dreaded “red triangle of death” returned to the Prius. I am on my second replacement battery pack from battery4prius. This current pack has been absolutely fine since it was installed 2-3 weeks ago. I was getting great mileage and had more power. On Tuesday when the light came on I cleared it and the car was still running fine. Yesterday when the light came on I knew it was bad because the hybrid battery cooling fan was screaming at full blast.
My code reader not only gave the general bad hybrid battery code but also two additional codes that identify at least two battery banks that are bad in the pack. When the battery gets to this state the car is borderline undriveable. If the battery voltage drops below a certain point the Prius shuts it off and tries to run on it’s gas engine only. However it also affect the transmission, the car feels like it is constantly slipping. Despite high engine revs it’s tough to get the Prius to do over 45 mph in this state.
So I babied the car on the drive home, having to pull over a couple times to reset the battery system to get me out of turtle mode. I once again contacted the battery installers and told them my second replacement pack is bad as well. I knew getting a refurbished battery had the possibility of this scenario popping up although I certainly didn’t expect it to happen twice in the first two months.
On the way home I actually bought a replacement 12V battery for the car as well. The battery has never been replaced since we owned it and I was showing readings as low as 11.4 volts on the unit. A low 12V battery can cause all sorts of strange things to happen with a Prius so I figured I should replace it as well. Like most things on the Prius, the special trunk mounted battery needed is not cheap. I dropped over $250 for a replacement which I hope to install this evening.
The battery installers hopefully will be out this weekend to throw yet another hybrid pack into the car. I feel bad for them in a way but it’s not my fault that the packs they are installing just are not holding up. I am fortunate that we live in a three vehicle household where I can park the Prius and just use my Tacoma as my daily driver for now. I have to admit that I did submit a Costco pricing request on a Bolt yesterday, just for fun.
Tending to Lucy the chicken has been stressful. She has at times been uncooperative when we give her the meds by mouth. It takes a lot of patience. Last night we removed the bandages we put on Tuesday for her bleeding wound. Somehow during that removal process she started to bleed again. Cindy was able to get the bleeding stopped with a very generous application of the stypic powder. We have used so much of it at this point that I need to stop and grab some more today. We are trying to be optimistic and look at Lucy being more resistant to the meds as a sign that she is feeling better and more energetic. We still have over a week to go yet with the twice a day antibiotics.
There was a very cute and touching moment last night. After we got the bleeding stopped Cindy was cleaning off Lucy’s feet which had some dried blood on them. As she was doing so Lucy gently wrapped her toes around one of Cindy’s fingers. It was almost like she was doing a chicken equivalent of holding hands. In our minds it felt like she was maybe expressing thanks for our attempts to help her. Instead of placing her on the perch we let her stay in one of the nesting boxes overnight, figuring it would be a more comfortable spot for her to rest without putting pressure on the wing.
This morning, after giving her the morning dose of meds she immediately started on her chicken business, seeming normal outside of the drooping wing. Birds are very tough, usually they will do an amazing job of hiding ailments until the very end. Cindy and I are hoping for a miraculous recovery but even if it doesn’t happen we are both committed to doing whatever we can to help Lucy.
So I followed up my mower repair and normal mowing session on Sunday with mowing the back half of the yard yesterday. It was totally dry and if I have learned anything since living in Florida, you have brief windows of time during wet season where you can mow before the next deluge arrives. My steering repairs held up to the very bumpy terrain in the back yard. I also had the big generator running for a good portion of the day, powering the AC in Cindy’s RV, cooling it down and giving the unit some time to circulate.
I took advantage of the dry and now totally mowed fenced in yard with my One Wheel. I rode the board all over the back which was much more difficult than paved or concrete riding. Your lower body is just in constant motion adjusting to the shifts in terrain, it’s physically demanding. I fell off a couple times but didn’t hit the ground (that came later in the day) My body felt tense which was the opposite of what you want. It’s all a matter of practice and repetition. Just as I finished the ride a super storm blew in, dumping at least three inches of rain in a short period of time. The rain event turned the dry property back into a swamp in no time, making me feel all the better about getting all of the mowing done before it hit. You can actually see the first part of the storm at the end of the video.
We lost power later in the day, after the storms ironically. I suggested to Cindy that instead of listening to all the beeping UPS’s in the house we take Elsa over to the school so I could ride the One Wheel some more while they hung out. She was down with the plan. I had fun riding all around the school property. The only negative was a relatively hard fall I took when I tried to cross a small grassy spot between sidewalks. It had more of a gully in it than I realized which instantly stopped the board and sent me flying where my right hand and hip took the impact. My hand was fine thanks to the wrist guards I always wear. The hip hurt, leaving a second bruise next to the other One Wheel mark from a couple weeks prior. Even with incident I had a good time. Learning to ride EUC’s and the One Wheel at this stage of life has at least kept my motivation and determination levels actively engaged.
We have been giving Lucy her meds from the vet orally twice a day using a little syringe. Surprisingly she has been pretty agreeable to the process. Yesterday we got a scare. After giving her the meds we sprayed down the area on the mass that was cut by the vet to try to drain it with antiseptic. As Cindy wiped it down Lucy jerked violently, evidently the scab came off. She started to bleed badly from the area.
If you ever had birds, you know that when they bleed it can be a big problem as their blood does not clot well. We originally just tried applying pressure with a paper towel but it quickly became soaked in blood. Luckily I had just bought stypic powder, a substance used to stop bleeding on birds. Cindy ran inside and got some as well as additional bandages. I was really worried as there was a LOT of bleeding but eventually we got it stopped and got her wing wrapped up. I checked on her several times during the evening. She was fine and appeared normal this morning which is a relief.
So I started my four day weekend off with my run. I figured getting it out of the way on Friday would be a nice way to clear the weekend for two days of no alarm. I missed running the week prior due to my various One Wheel injuries. The week off did nothing to make the experience any easier. It was almost 80 degrees at 6:30 AM and the humidity was brutal. It was an uncomfortable run from the first stride to the last but I endured.
So the main reason I took Friday off was so I could take Lucy to the vet to see if they could drain the huge swollen area under her one wing. Catching her to put her in the cat carrier wasn’t easy but once we got her in there she was calm. It was Lucy’s first car ride. We had gone to this vet once before with Lola, one of our chickens that passed away a couple years ago. I remember that experience wasn’t spectacular.
So I didn’t get to actually see the vet until a solid 20 minutes after my appointment time which was slightly annoying. When she did come in I quickly remembered what I didn’t enjoy about our last experience, the woman is sort of a bitch. Her attitude was off putting. She looked at Lucy for a minute or two, she was taken back by the size of swelling and commented on how it felt hot. I told her we noticed the same thing and thought the heat may mean infection. She said it could be infected or maybe some sort of tumor.
She then presented me three options, try to drain the mass and give antibiotics, take a biopsy and send it out, or do X-rays for more information. I told her I walked in there hoping for her to do the first option to see what sort of results we can get. She took Lucy to a back room and returned a few minutes later with a syringe with some bloody fluid in it. It wasn’t a huge amount. She said that was all she could get out. She said she even made a small incision but got very little out.
Ok well that was all I wanted her to do at this point. They gave us two weeks of antiobiotics and anti-inflammatory medicine to give Lucy by mouth, twice a day, that will be fun. The 15 minute visit cost $150, what a bargain. At least we had some meds to try to actively combat whatever is going on. Other than catching Lucy each time, giving her the meds hasn’t been that bad. It’s a two person operation but she is rather cooperative taking the liquid. Maybe she knows we are trying to help her. Her wing was bandaged up from the vet which she hated. We couldn’t take it off until the next morning.
Cindy was working most of the day which left me home to melt outside while doing chores. I first weeded and then followed up with weed whacking during the early afternoon, in the absolute hottest part of the day. We are now in the part of summer where the heat and humidity is merciless. By the time I was done I was depleted. I jumped in the pool to get my body temp down and still felt washed out, so much so that I actually laid in bed for an hour, something that is very, very rare during daytime hours.
On Saturday it was nice to not have to set an alarm. After tending to the chickens we headed out to run some errands. One of those included stopping at Ron Jon’s the place I got the One Wheel from. I just wanted to look at more of their skateboard gear. Cindy did a lot of skateboarding as a kid and was really interested in all the stuff they had. We talked a lot with a kid that worked there named Miguel. We wound up walking out of there with a cool board for Cindy. She was very excited by the prospect of reliving one of her childhood highlights.
Later in the afternoon when we got home she did her first riding in the driveway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TweySSQzfU
I neglected to mention I rode the One Wheel all the way to Dunkin Donuts and back on Saturday morning. The unit is rated for 12-18 miles of range. The ride was more than 20 miles. I made it home, just barely. The video is pretty entertaining.
Saturday night we met up with Cindy’s family to celebrate her neice’s 24th birthday. It was held at Iguana Mia, a place I used to like but have had several poor experiences at lately. My food was better this time around but Cindy’s mom was not as pleased, telling the waitress she was given the worst taco salad she has ever eaten. A lot of the lettuce was brown and nasty looking. They at least didn’t charge her for the food. Everyone seemed to have fun and I had a couple Shock Tops to take the edge off.
On Sunday morning Cindy and I took the Segway I2, the OneWheel and her new skateboard out for a ride. It was a fun little trip that surely had to look strange to oncoming traffic. Cindy made some real strong progress blowing the dust off her boarding skills. She was rolling around the school parking lot pretty confidently, it was impressive.
Shortly after we got back I had to dive into fixing the tractor steering arms, one of which fell apart last weekend mowing. I pulled the tractor into the garage to avoid the blazing sun. It quickly became obvious that this was going to be a much more involved job than I expected. I thought I could just pop off a couple nuts for each arm and swap in the new one. The problem is the rear nut is attached to the steering plate which is snugged up against the underside of the tractor. I had no access to turn off the nuts, the only way it could be done is by dropping the steering plate.
Doing this was a huge pain in the ass. I had to remove the mower deck and then use contortionist like skills to hold a socket on the nut up inside the body of the mower while turning out the 3/4″ bolt below. I was coated in oily, dirty, organic matter mixed with a constant stream of sweat. It was quite the ordeal but I finally was successful. I was very glad I decided to be proactive and ordered the arms for both sides even the one was still holding together. If I didn’t get both I would have been repeating this shit a few months later.
I wasted no time putting my repair to the test, mowing the front half of the yard. Even with the canopy the heat radiating down made the task miserable. The good news is the steering is working well.
I spent close to two hours later trying to work out some bugs I have been having doing my EUC live streams. I finally got it sorted out with about 45 minutes to go before the broadcast. The stream went pretty well although it was a bit awkward for me. The show is all about electric unicycles and I haven’t ridden my EUC’s since I got the One Wheel. I still think we did a decent job. I want to work on coming up with a more structured format which should flow better.
Today is my last day of vaca. I have work planned, as always but hopefully an equal amount of fun.
Finally before bed I removed the front footpad sensor from my One Wheel XR. It is being sent out to California to get repaired/replaced to address the random issue where the pad does not disengage the motor properly. This has caused it to run away from me quite a few times as well as dump me on my ass. The idea of being without my One Wheel for a period of time bothered me enough that I ordered a brand new pad set, just so I have spares in the future.
