Archives 2018

So I had a rough plan on how my 4th of July was going to go.  I wanted to bust ass in the morning getting ALL of the property weed whacked and mowed.  The rest of the day would then be available to do fun stuff like practice riding the One Wheel.  Unfortunately ever since we got Elsa, fireworks are no longer part of our celebration plans.  Leaving her alone while we went to go see fireworks somewhere would be absolutely terrifying for Elsa, as homegrown fireworks in our area would be going off constantly.  Just the sound of a single blast is enough to start her shaking in fear.

So anyway after taking care of the chicken maintenance and eating breakfast I headed outside to do battle with the yard.  As I was sweating profusely, getting caked with grass clippings, I thought to myself how it has been nice that we are into July and still have not had that awful prolonged standing water that Cindy and I loathe.  I worked close to four hours outside until handing off the tractor duties to Cindy who mowed the back half of the yard.  When she finished up we both commented on just how awesome everything looked.

When I came inside I had to deal with work stuff.  On Tuesday we had a minor disaster when our main data circuit to our remote offices failed, on the second day of our new cloud based back end system.  I spent the entire day Tuesday scrambling to come up with workarounds to address it, which I finally did.  The circuit was repaired on Wednesday so I had to undo the workarounds I had put in place.

So mid-afternoon I was ready to resume my One Wheel practice outdoors.  The only riding I had done was in the main living space which is dangerous for both me and the contents of the house, as I proved later.  So just as I was gearing up to go outside it started to rain.  Ok, I figured it would be a quick hitting downpour so I ungeared and fired up WoW for a bit.  Well instead of letting up a full fledged monsoon blew in.  We had horrible, pounding rain with high winds for a couple hours.

Remember what I said about how nice it was that we did not have Noah’s Ark type flooding on the property so far this summer?  Well you can scratch that.  The yard quickly transformed into a bog after the storm.  I was glad we got all the mowing done but immediately frustrated that the yard, that looked nearly perfect a few hours prior was now littered with ponds.

So anyway, my only option if I wanted to practice the One Wheel was to do it indoors once again.  I felt better and more confident than my initial experience Monday night.  In goofy foot stance I didn’t have nearly the same amount of shaking as before and I was able to mount and dismount without holding anything.  I had the GoPro running when I was demonstrating my adeptness at dismounting when this happened.

The impact of the wheel against the TV cabinet left a nice black plastic mark on the one door.  An earlier incident where the wheel again got away from me put a small crack on the laminate side surface of the island.  Obviously I should not be practicing indoors but I really wanted to at least do something to help my learning curve progress.  The fall above also took another hunk of skin off, this time on my right ankle.  Despite the mishaps I kept plugging away.  Before I called it quits I was rolling back and forth from the front door to the the rear slider pretty smoothly.  I even managed to do a loop around the kitchen island without grabbing anything for additional support.

So in a strange way I wish the rain would have continued as night arrived.  The reason is it would hopefully quell the home fireworks that so many people in our area find so enjoyable.  My attitude on fireworks is one of many things that have done a total 180 over the years.  I used to think they were incredibly cool and exciting.  Now, especially now with how terrified they make Elsa, I look on them with disdain. If I am being honest, I now feel somewhat negatively of people that feel the need to put on their own personal fireworks show because of their lack of thought/concern on how it affects others around them. Unfortunately the house next door was one of these people.

Because of the proximity the noise really scared Elsa, she was huddled under my desk most of the night.  I played WoW, the sounds of the game, which she is very used to helped drown out some of the explosions around us.  I realized that it was 4th of July, people are going to shoot off fireworks.  Complaining about it is like complaining the sky is blue, it’s just the way it is.

However as we laid in bed, sometime after 11 we heard some additional loud fireworks going off next door.  I believe there is some sort of noise ordinance that requires loud noises to cease at 11PM. Ordinance or not, common sense should dictate that firing off fireworks that late on a weeknight was out of line, inconsiderate, and irresponsible.   The noise not only scared Elsa but shook me from my drifting to sleep stage.  Cindy shot up and went outside to see if she she caught them doing it and would verbally warn them for doing so.  Fortunately there was no more explosions.  If there were, I had already laid out the mental plan for throwing on a pair of shorts, my boots and stomping across the soggy yard and requesting a cessation to the behavior in a undeniably unfriendly manner.

I finally managed to fall asleep and got up this morning feeling groggy, sore, and annoyed, what’s new….

So as I mentioned before I have been very interested in dipping my toe into the world of One Wheel for a couple weeks.  I have been reading, watching videos, and gathering information from all over the place.  My desire to get one was held in check by the fact that the model I want, the XR, is back ordered and takes at least a month, if not two to receive when ordered.

Well yesterday for some reason I found myself on the dealer locator page of the One Wheel web site.  After punching in my zip code I surprisingly discovered the Ron Jon Surf Shop in Fort Myers was actually a One Wheel retailer.  I knew it was pointless but just for the hell of it I called them up to see if they had any boards in stock.  I was in disbelief when they said, YES.  They had JUST received two of the XR units, wow.

After asking the price and confirming they sell them for the same amount as the web site I felt like this was almost divine intervention.  Nobody has these boards right now yet I just happened to stumble across a local source for one.  I told Cindy about my find and told her I’d like to go up there right after work to snag one of the two boards before they were gone.  Cindy was not enthusiastic about the plan but relented.  I assured her I would get home asap.

The ride up there  went through some absolutely torrential rain that slowed down my arrival by quite a bit.  The arrival was further delayed by the GPS taking me to the wrong section of Gulf Coast Town Center.  After a second phone call to Ron Jon I got my directions straight.  I fast walked into the store and told them I wanted an XR, they sales guy said, “cooooool” as he walked to the back to grab it.  I completed the transaction and put my new life experience challenge in the back of the Prius.

When I got home I just placed the box against the wall and didn’t even open it.  I knew Cindy was still skeptical of my decision so I didn’t want to make a big deal about it.  We ate dinner and watched some X1 content before I even turned my attention to the One Wheel.  When I got the board out I could immediately get a sense of the tank-like construction everyone talks about.  It feels like it is ready to do battle.  I was also surprised it came with a fully charged battery, every EUC I ever bought came with the battery at 20% or less out of the box.

So while Cindy was in the bedroom I decided I would just do something real simple, get on the board.  Although I have seen many instructions for how to do this the first time, tips like wear proper gear, do it outside, and hold onto something, I ignored pretty much all of it.  In my bare feet, in the middle of the great room, with nothing to hold onto, I tried bringing the board up into balancing position.  As soon as the electronics activated I developed a front back wobble that sent the front of the board down.  With a One Wheel, dropping the nose means accelerate.  So that is what the wheel did, sending me hopping off in the process.

The board immediately shut off as soon as I came off but made a hell of a racket which sent Cindy running into the room, worried that a major crash happened.  I told her I was fine and the board was fine.  I immediately got back up on the board, this time while holding onto Cindy’s shoulders.  After a few seconds I was able to release from her and get a sense of how the balance feels with this type of set up.  When I successfully dismounted I looked down and noticed drops of blood on the floor that lead to a pool of blood on the board that lead to the side of my right big toe.  Evidently when I came off the very abrasive grip tape took a sizeable chunk of toe skin with it.

The bleeding was pretty substantial so we had to stop and get it under control.  I held a paper towel on the wound until Cindy arrived with a band aid.  The band aid very quickly became saturated with blood so I applied a second one on top of it to tide me over until going to bed.

So while I was on the sidelines Cindy got up on the board.  Despite her initial reaction to my purchase, she was very curious and sort of excited by the One Wheel.  You see Cindy has a skateboarding background as a kid, something I only toyed with.  When I started getting into EUCs Cindy expressed interest in the One Wheel.  I wasn’t all that interested at the time because spec-wise it was far inferior to many EUCs in terms of speed and range.  Well with the new XR model those specs have improved drastically.

So anyway Cindy got up and balancing on the board pretty easily and before long was slowly making her way around the great room/kitchen with minimal balance assist.  She said she really liked it and that THIS was something she could really be excited about riding, something she never really felt with electric unicycles.  I got on afterward and did some more slow movements as well as getting off and on.  I’m not 100% positive but I think I am a “goofy” foot rider, meaning I ride with my left foot back instead of my right.  I need to do some more testing.  Because of the cross wired way my body is as far as side dominance goes, I’m just not sure which style will work best for me for control.  I am technically right footed but I think my left leg is actually stronger and I mount and dismount an EUC as a left footed person would.

I can tell immediately that riding a One Wheel will involve more total body engagement than an EUC does once I become at least basically capable of riding it. I think it will be very interesting contrasting and comparing my learning experience on the electric unicycle to what goes down on the One Wheel.  Right now I feel very stiff and unsure of myself, just like I did with EUCs, however my past experience makes me confident that with some determination and practice (and shoes), I can conquer this physical challenge, despite Father Time pulling at my feet.

I had one of those weekends where I spent a good portion of it feeling frustrated and annoyed.  There are times when I get into this mode and it is very hard for me to shake.  Luckily I had some Zima on hand to help reverse those negative feelings.

I got my run in again on Saturday morning.  It was again a run that was held in stifling humidity and temps hovering around 80, at 6:30 in the morning.  I survived and ran a little quicker than the week before so that is a win.

I had a number of small tasks I wanted to get done in addition to my normal Saturday morning duties.  One of them was taking apart the downspout connected to the super gutter that runs along the pool cage.  For awhile Cindy and I noticed during hard rain water would be backing way up the pipe, spilling out the seams.

Then I disconnected the downspout and felt the weight of it, the problem became obvious.  The irrigation tube I buried over 15 years ago had slowly filled with debris.  That debris had gotten to the point where it was backing up into the downspout itself.  I took each section apart and cleaned it out.  I have no way to clean out the buried irrigation tube so I came up with an alternative route for the water which spills out onto a section of the yard that is well secured with thick grass so erosion shouldn’t be a problem.

We went to Home Depot later to grab a few things including a new toilet seat for the guest bathroom.  The soft close mechanism in the existing seat had failed, resulting in a lot of unintended slamming when using the facilities.  When picking out the replacement seat I made sure to get an oblong model because I remembered when I replaced the original I picked out the wrong style of seat. (oblong/circle)  You can imagine my happiness when we got home and I realized that once again, I picked the wrong size seat.  We actually have a round bowl, not oblong.  I went to Home Depot a second time during the afternoon to correct my mistake.

During the afternoon Cindy and I went to the school with the two MiniPros in the trunk.  I wanted to document the difference between a regular unit and a unit that has had oversized tires installed.  As I was setting up the gear Cindy hopped on the Monster Minipro and said it felt weird.  I got on it and felt the same weirdness.  It turns out the weirdness was because the one tire no longer had air in it.  This was annoying, since we paid to have it installed.  I asked Cindy to run home to grab the pump so I could reinflate the tire.

When she returned after a lot of pumping and no inflating I realized that the problem was the tire was no longer seated on it’s bead.  Any air I was pumping in was coming out instantly.  I gave up on manually pumping, as my frustration level was off the charts.  It managed to inch up a couple more spots when I wasted money at the gas station trying to pump the tire up as well only to discover the pump didn’t appear to be working correctly.  Once we got home I attacked the issue again, using my air compressor.  By the time I was done failing I was a sweaty, smelly mess and just miserable.  I told Cindy she would need to take it back to the bike shop to get the tire mounted again, if it cost me more money I didn’t care.

Saturday night we stayed home and watched Ghost in the Shell, a movie Cindy decided she hated before it even started.  Evidently it got bad reviews but I normally don’t do that much research before adding titles to my Netflix DVD queue.  Well to be fair, it was a pretty bad movie but I have definitely seen worse.  You do get to see Scarlett Johannson in a body suit quite a bit and the special effects were pretty wild.  Overall though I really can’t recommend the movie, it’s pretty dumb with a C- grade from me.

After watching a number of videos regarding reseating the bead of a tire I decided to take one more crack at the Minipro on Sunday morning.  I saw various techniques including some that sounded a bit dangerous where you spray the inside of the tire with carb cleaner and then ignite it with a lighter to pop the tire onto the rim.   I used a non-combustive method where I used a ratchet strap that I affixed around the middle of the tire.  I cranked it down tight to force the edge of the tire onto the wheel.  I then hit it hard with air pressure.  I got very excited when I felt the tire expand under my hand.

I jumped a bit when after releasing the strap the tire made a loud pop as it snapped all the way onto the rim.   When I checked the tire pressure initially it was double what the maximum rated PSI is supposed to be, whoops.  I walked in and triumphantly told Cindy I got the tire back on.  She agreed to head back to the school with me to do the testing for real this time.

The testing went well.  We confirmed that the bigger tires help top speed and clearance.  We also realized that riding without fenders is a safety hazard because without them you can easily press your feet inadvertently against the large spinning tires.  You can see the full result of the test below.

I decompressed a good portion of the remainder of the weekend getting lost in WoW.  It helped bring my mood back to a more even keel.

I have a hell week at work as we launch the new cloud based solution that will replace the majority of our back end systems.  We have been working on this goal for over 18 months.  To have all that work come to fruition is a good thing.

So a couple weeks ago I noticed I was missing the rubber axle cover on one of the front tires of the tractor.  This rubber boot is used to keep dirt out of the wheel hub area.  I can already tell not having one for a couple weeks has been bad as there is a lot of squeaking from that wheel.  I ordered a replacement rubber cap but I also was curious if I would be able to 3D print a functional replacement out of flexible filament.

I received the new boot yesterday but instead of installing it I got out my calipers to do some measurements.  After sketching up the numbers on a piece of paper I went into Tinkercad to make my 3D model which I then exported, sliced in Cura, copied to a SD card and printed.  This weekend I want to do a test fit and see if I need to tweak it at all.  Of course I recorded the process, it might be interesting to some to see how the need for a part or object can be totally self fulfilled using this method.

Last night we had a pretty serious storm that dumped a couple inches of rain in a short period of time.  This morning there is some minor standing water but we are still staying pretty dry, especially compared to last year.  By this time last year I was already pumping standing water out of the chicken area.  So far that has not been necessary.

This weekend I have stuff to do around the house just as pretty much every weekend of the last 18 years.  it may sound at times like I am complaining about it and in some ways I am. However in the big picture if I didn’t have goals to attain, problems to solve, and issues to address I would go bat shit crazy.

Another gun violence incident yesterday, another round of thoughts and prayers sent out, works great, at accomplishing nothing.

So when I was first exploring the world of electric personal transport vehicles one of the things I checked out was the One Wheel.  In some ways it reminds you of an EUC with it’s single, albeit huge single tire.  Like an EUC you control speed and direction with your body but in a different orientation.  The One Wheel mimics snowboarding/skateboarding where as an EUC is more like a pair of skis.

As a kid I dabbled in skateboards but I never could do anything beyond riding it conventionally with only mild control at best.  The fact that EUC’s offered more range and speed were the reason I decided to go down that path, a path which I thoroughly love.

However lately I have found myself getting more and more interested in revisiting the One Wheel.  Over the past few years they have really improved the guts of the hybrid skateboard/snowboard.  The initial version had very limited speed and range of only 5-7 miles.  Their latest offering, the XR+ can go up to 18-19 miles on a charge and can reach speeds of almost 20 mph, way better specs than my first EUC.

I find myself feeling like I want to once again challenge my half century old mind and body to take on a new challenge of learning how to ride it.  I think my EUC progress will help in this challenge but the different stance and balance position will surely open a very large can of worms that will take time to adjust to.

One thing I also absolutely love about the prospect of owning a One Wheel is, brace yourself, it is made in the USA.  Yep, pretty much every single electric personal transport has it’s origin in China.  The One Wheel was designed, built and sold out of California.  It’s a feel good story that I want to be a part of.  I’m not sure exactly when this adventure will begin, but it will….

So Cindy didn’t get the chance to mow during the day yesterday as there was a brief downpour as she was getting ready to do it.  Despite her objections, I told her I was going to get on the tractor and knock it out, despite the skies still looking foreboding.  I jumped on the tractor and got busy.  Mowing wet grass is never fun but I wanted to have the task complete, no matter what. (thanks Dad).  It took me a little more than 90 minutes on the tractor to finish.  I limped off the tractor (a normal reaction nowadays) and headed inside, glad to have accomplished my goal.  Mowing on Monday evenings will not become the new norm.

So as I mentioned yesterday, Cindy took the Minipro to our local bike shop to see if they could get the incredibly stiff tires onto the unit.  I was happy when Cindy messaged me, saying the mission was accomplished.  I asked if it was easy for them to install the tires.  She said definitely not.  It took two beefy guys manhandling the tires at the same time with a third lending a hand in addition.  Some large prying tools were involved as well.  Hearing the depiction of events made me feel a little less like a failure from not being able to install the new tires by myself with lesser tools.

Tonight I have to finish putting the Minipro back together and clean up the mess in the hobby room.  At some point I want to do a comprehensive test of the monster tired Minipro versus our other one with stock tires.  It will be interesting to see how handling and top speed is affected.

Despite my best efforts to make it slow down, this weekend once again flew by in the blink of an eye.  I was planning to mow the grass but Cindy offered to do it today to help keep the weekend slate clear.  I appreciated her effort but just found myself other things that needed to be done.  It’s a viscous cycle.  I spent a good portion of the afternoon cleaning the floor surfaces of the house, first with shampooing all the carpeted areas and then hitting all the hard surfaces with the steam cleaner. It’s unfun work.

Oh I did start off with a run again on Saturday.  A hot and miserable run through thick humidity and temps already pushing 80 degrees.  I am still waiting for it to get easier.

On Saturday night we went out to see the new Jurassic Park movie.  I really liked it, it had a lot of the feel of the original.  The only thing that annoyed was the inconsistency of action of the little girl in the movie (you’ll understand when you see it).  But all in all it was a good, scare the s out of you at times dino movie. I’d give it an A and so did Cindy.

Sunday morning I went for a longish ride on the Monster, riding all the way from the house to North Collier Regional Park.  Even with a 15-16 mile ride, it flies by pretty quickly on the big wheel.  I was cruising right around 25 mph for most of the trip.  I actually hit the speed warning a couple times at 28mph.

Sunday afternoon I decided to take on tire replacement on Cindy’s Minipro.  I got the bigger tires from James, the guy that drove four hours to test the Z10.  These tires are much bigger than the originals and offer more speed and off road capability.  James forgot to tell me about one more feature, they frustrate the f out of you trying to get them installed.  In total I spent close to two hours trying to get the new tires on, unsuccessfully.  I either needed better tools, better technique, or a second set of strong hands.  I eventually said F it and have Cindy taking it to a bike shop to get the tires mounted today.  I’ll trade $20 to save me two hours of frustration at this point in life.

The last part of the weekend was consumed by my first official live stream with Marty, building off our test version from last week.  I think all in all it went well.  We had the largest viewing crowd by far for me, topping out at 45 simultaneous viewers at one point.  There were some challenges with having so many people in there, namely trying to pay attention to the chat which had some questions we didn’t get to address.  Marty jumped out after about an hour but I stayed in there, trying to answer some of what was missed.  It was a good time but also a bit draining.  Marty was talking about doing this once a week but I think bi-weekly may work out better for me, we’ll see.

So the Z10 madness finally came to a close yesterday.  I boxed up the wheel and dropped it off at FedEx on my way home from work.  It’s going out to Denver next.  Ironically, the recipient of the wheel is that young kid that I called out for reckless EUC riding a few weeks back.   Last night I did one final Z10 video where I tried to summarize my two days of extensive testing.  It seems for the most part people liked my review.  Hopefully it means I will be considered to review other models down the road as they come available.

This weekend should contain a pretty normal amount of work and recreation.  On Sunday evening I am scheduled to have my first ever official EUC live stream with Marty, building upon our test run from last week.  I have a few technical details I need to work on before we go live but I think it should go well.

Balance in life is important, too much of anything is generally not a great idea, even if it is a fun thing like riding electric unicycles.  Since Monday evening my life has been consumed with nothing but EUC.  I was planning, riding, commenting, filming, driving and editing pretty much non-stop right up until last night.  To be honest, I just can’t find the energy to type out everything about the experience.  Don’t get me wrong, it was a bunch of fun and I was very honored to be chosen as one of the influencers in the US worthy of giving my opinion on the Ninebot Z-10.  However I would prefer if you just watched the video series as time allows, to tell the story.

I started off Father’s Day weekend with a run at the track despite my lower body still dealing with aching knees and a few other pains.  The air was thick with humidity and I felt like just finishing the distance was the primary goal.  It reflected in my pace which was the slowest I have logged in a couple months, oh well. I was pretty wiped out by the end of it.

So since I got work done on Thursday that meant I didn’t have to do quite as much as normal this weekend. Of course that meant I still found other things to do as that list never ends.

Mid-morning we took the dogs on a ride to Tractor Supply to get chicken supplies.  On the way back we dropped Sadie off at Ali’s.  Her and Shugs just got back from a trip up to Sea Isle City New Jersey with Ali’s parents.  For around a half decade or so I used to go to SIC with my first wife’s family so I was very familiar with it.  It is a great little place and in some ways reminded me of Rehoboth.

Mid-afternoon Cindy and I did an impromptu ride to the swamp, me on my Msuper and Cindy on her mountain bike. It was a cool little trip.  I was excited to see that they have replaced roughly half of the decking for the rotting boardwalk with the trex style composite wood which should last forever.

So we made plans to go to The Warehouse to eat dinner for Father’s Day.  Shortly before we were ready to leave I let Elsa out to go to the bathroom while I closed up the chicken area.  As I walked back up to the house I called Elsa over and stopped dead in my tracks.  She was covered in dirt. But I realized it wasn’t dirt, it was actually sludge.

Earlier in the day I dumped one of the rain barrels that was dry rotting.  In the bottom of it was a collection of black disgusting sludge that I stupidly didn’t hose away.  Elsa evidently found the smell of this substance intoxicating and decided to roll around in it.  I couldn’t be mad at her, she looked so proud of herself.

So even though we were both all cleaned up and ready to leave we had to give Elsa a tag team bath by the side of the house, trying to not get ourselves too dirty in the process.  It was quite the funny situation.

So despite being open for nearly a year, Cindy and I have never frequented the Warehouse before.  It is the closest upscale restaurant in our area.  We had heard good things about the place from others.  We walked out of there echoing the same feelings.  The food was great, the design of the space was cool and modern, our waitress was extremely friendly and attentive, and the restaurant was immaculately clean.  Hell as I was sitting there somebody was walking around cleaning the baseboards.  We will definitely be back.

The movie we went to see was Ocean’s 8, something Cindy said she wanted to see.  I liked all the other movies in the Ocean series so I was fine to see this one.  For whatever reason I was really sleepy which did not help my enjoyment of the movie.  It was a good flick although I would not rate it as highly as the originals.  It definitely does not benefit from the theater experience and can be enjoyed just the same at home as a rental.  I’d give it a solid B.

Sunday morning I took off for another EUC ride, this time on the Monster.  The plan was for Cindy to meet me at Dunkin Donuts with Elsa and then she could walk Elsa around while I rode with them.  Well the first part of the plan went well, the ride to Dunkin Donuts flew by quickly.

I wore my new full face helmet for the ride.  I wanted to see how comfortable it would be now that the full effect of Florida summer heat is on us.  The answer was, not bad.  As long as I was rolling the airflow through the helmet kept me comfortable and the big long visor kept the sun off my face.  When I was sitting still waiting for Cindy to come out with coffee it got a little warm. I did discover one big drawback with the helmet, I can’t drink coffee while wearing it.  Almost every ride video you see of me will involve me drinking coffee during it so I will need to plan accordingly.

I talked to my dad during the afternoon.  He appreciated my Father’s Day gift, a pair of those wrap around sunglasses old people wear that go over your existing glasses.  Even though it was really a gag gift dad actually will wear them because they do serve a practical purpose and look a little ridiculous, a combo he can endorse.

Late Sunday afternoon I hooked up with Marty, an EUC buddy of mine who lives in the LA area.  We are going to be doing what equates to an Electric Unicycle podcast, at least testing it out.  We wanted to test out the logistics before we do the official launch next weekend.  I used Skype for us to do a two way video call and then broadcast that window out to YouTube.  There are a few bugs to work out but I think it will work out pretty well.

Even though I have known Marty via our EUC connection I never actually spoke to him, until yesterday.  We had no issue going back and forth about stuff.  I actually talked to him for around an hour on Skype BEFORE I started broadcasting.  He has some good ideas for the content of the show which I think I will more or less his thing while I concentrate on the technical aspects.  If you want to see how our test run went look below.  I streamed for almost two hours which is crazy.

So after working today I have the next two days off which will be dedicated to testing the Ninebot Z10 which is scheduled to be delivered to the house today.  It should be a fun and busy couple days which will involve me driving all over the place to test the wheel in various conditions/locations.  See you Thursday.