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.
I had Friday off and I went into it hoping to get all of my intended chores knocked out ahead of the official weekend. I did the chicken work, weeded, weed whacked and mowed which consumed a large portion of the day. We also went and picked up Sadie to visit for the weekend which Elsa was absolutely thrilled with. I also spent some time cleaning up my workbench which was getting very cluttered. It’s amazing how much better you feel when shit is nice and tidy.
Later in the day I was out in the coop, intending to fix my existing WeMo smart switch out there as well as use another one to control the coop door movement. So part of reconfiguring the switches is to connect to the wifi network I have out in the coop. I looked at my phone and saw that the coop wifi was not showing up. I looked at the router on the shelf and see no lights. WTF.
So I immediately suspected the mouse was to blame as it has already destroyed all the wires for the dvr cameras. Sure enough as I traced the power cord I came to a damaged portion that was chewed on. I was pissed.
Earlier I had just gotten done installing a huge plastic nut and bolt I 3D printed to plug up the hole the DVR wires used to come in. I had it plugged with a big cleaning rag and the mouse managed to chew it up and destroy it as well. So I had to run out and buy another wifi router. I mounted the new one on the wall, hoping it will be a less accessible target.
Later in the weekend I discovered more mouse damage. It chewed out a big area next to the bolt and I found an area down low on the other side of the coop it was chewing on as well. I got some expanding foam to fill the new damage but this was out of control. So you can imagine my mood when I checked the interior coop cam on Saturday night and saw the little bastard running around. I dropped everything and headed right out there.
So I closed the coop door behind me. My intent was to capture but not kill the mouse (palm rat). Well I spent a good 15 minutes chasing this thing all around the coop. I did not have anything good to catch him with so I was trying to use an empty chicken feeder, trying to get him trapped inside of it. The effort was futile and it eventually scurried out a crack in the door. However I did at least learn where all of his hiding places inside the coop are.
The main problem is the mouse getting trapped inside the coop once the automatic door closes. Once that happens he spends the entire night chewing on whatever he can to try to get out. So one part of the solution will be me doing a full sweep of the coop when I put the chickens to bed, making sure no rodents are camped out before I close the door. The other remedy is trapping/removing the animals.
It would be very easy to put down glue pads or some other lethal device to take out the palm rats. However, despite the damage and hassle they have caused us, I am hard wired to not want to harm another creature unless it causes physical harm to me (ie mosquitoes, fire ants). I purchased two more of the live traps. I successfully caught three of the mice so far but the mechanism on the existing trap seems to be screwed up now. I also bought one of those ultrasonic pest repellents that I have hooked up in the coop. It’s frequency is supposed to be very unpleasant to rats/mice so hopefully that will be another reason for them to look elsewhere to homestead. This is a battle that has been going on for months but I still think I can win the war.
Saturday my main project happened once the rain started during the afternoon, installing a dash cam/mirror combo in the Prius. There have been tons of times that something happened on the road where I wished I had a dash cam. Last week I decided to finally grab one that incorporated a dash cam into the mirror. The unit straps onto your existing rear view mirror for easy installation.
The unit includes a rear view camera. The Prius already has a back up cam but I decided to install the second camera so I could record my rear view as well. The most challenging part of the install was finding a way to mount the rear camera and run the wires up to the head unit. I had to drill a hole to make it happen but it is in an inconspicuous spot. The unit seems to work well and has a large 7 inch touch screen incorporated into it. The only annoyance was the mirror in the Prius was already on the loose side, strapping the dash cam on top only amplified the problem. I bought a generic mirror later in the weekend which is better, but still not as stable as I would prefer.
I was surprised when this video generated a very angry comment from a viewer. He was apparently very angry at all Prius owners although I am not sure why he would actively seek out a Prius video if that is the case. I responded as I normally do to ridiculous comments, I thanked him and encouraged him to like and subscribe. I am all but certain this guy has Trump bumper stickers adorning his vehicle.
Saturday night Cindy and I watched Dunkirk, a movie Cindy had wanted to see for awhile. I am far from a World War 2 buff but I never heard of the Dunkirk scenario in France. All you ever hear about is the Battle of Normandy. Assuming the depictions in the film were historically accurate, it seemed like just a nightmare scenario. It just amazes me that despite the repeated lessons of horror and depravity that war teaches us, we continue to engage in it and even seek it out, in many cases to simply fuel the military industry that demands it. Anyway, it was a good A- movie and a somber reminder of how awful war is and the bravery of those that have to engage in it.
Sunday morning the rain had stopped, leaving behind a decent day. It felt odd waking up after the time change at nearly 8AM. I had originally intended to try to resume my running this weekend but decided to give myself one more week of recovery. I still have subpar energy/endurance and coughing and blowing nose fits are still a thing.
I got out on my Mten3 in the morning, doing the ride to Dunkin Donuts on the tiny 10 inch wheel, something I had talked about doing for awhile. It was a lot more challenging than doing the same route with the Msuper or Monster, which are both much bigger and more stable EUC’s. The small form factor of the Mten which makes it so adept at tight turns and riding backwards can also make it a bit shaky at higher speeds. Two weeks ago Katie found that out herself when she developed a high speed wobble on hers that caused her to crash. I kept my speed down, somewhere close to 15mph, about 5mph slower than I would travel on my bigger wheels. I had Cindy meet me there with the dogs so we could go run errands afterward.
Late in the afternoon I went out solo on the big i2 Segway, taking it out onto the roads for the first time. I rode it to the school and back, a round trip of about 7 miles. The 12.5 mph top speed was something I ran into quite often but as the ride progressed I got better at cruising just under that limit to decrease the tilt back. You really feel like you are wheeling around on a two wheeled tank. It makes a lot of noise so you don’t have to worry about unexpectedly sneaking up on someone, they will definitely hear you coming. I am hoping next weekend Cindy and I can do a tandem ride with her on the i2 and me on one of the EUCs.
I am hoping this upcoming week marks the end of illness for both Cindy and I. It just isn’t fun.
So despite me approaching the end of two weeks since I started getting symptoms, I am still trying to shake the last vestiges of illness. At this point I am left with random nasty sounding coughing fits, nose blowing and a general overall decrease in energy levels/reserves. Cindy has been in bad shape all week, missing work, and at times being able to hardly function. She is improving as well but still has a long way to go.
Last night Katie stopped by, we showed her the big Segway i2. She took a few spins around the front yard and seemed to have fun although I know she would probably get bored compared to the speed and agility she has become accustomed to with her Mten3. I was a bit more aggressive with my riding, doing some hard S-turns up and down the driveway. Even though I only ever skied once, the motion really reminded me of slalom skiing. I’m looking forward to us taking the big PT out somewhere this weekend to see how it goes.
So during my lunch on Monday I decided to go to Costco to pick up my new glasses. I figured an hour would be plenty of time. Well silly me forgot we are in the sweaty, stinky part of snowbird season. The parking lot was nearly full, despite it being the middle of a Monday. The optical department was equally full. I had at least 10 old people ahead of me. I looked for some “express” spot to pick up glasses but they evidently had no such thing.
I waited patiently by the large screen TV’s and was surprised they have once again raised the bar on monster screens. I gawked at an 82″ behemoth set, wow. Finally my turn came. The clerk got out my glasses and handed them to me to try on. Slipping them on for the first time was sort of surreal. All that stuff that I have just become accustomed to having distortion was now suddenly laser clear. Wow, it was a bit disorienting to be honest but I confirmed the glasses are doing what they should be and took off.
I wore them to drive and found myself constantly testing myself, reading license plates, small text on signs, and billboards, all things that used to be blurred beyond recognition. It was very cool. The drawback is if I need to see something close to me it is now blurry, requiring me to flip the glasses up to see it. I don’t really mind wearing the glasses and being able to have the world more in focus is a good feeling.
So since being given the dead Segway I2 I have been spending time and money getting the stuff required to bring it back to life. Last week I received a used set of batteries. Yesterday I received a brand new key for the unit. I wasted little time before testing the combo out to see if the Segway was indeed functional. I smiled as I heard the unit come to life. A quick step on a footpad and I was wheeling around the house, very slowly. Of course I needed to go outside.
One thing I immediately noticed was the mileage on the wheel. This thing was made in 2011 yet the odometer shows it has a grand total of 24 MILES on it. Wow, I knew it was hardly used from the description our friend gave us but this thing is basically brand new. There are people that have 10,000 miles or more on their Segways.
It became obvious the wheel was locked in “beginner mode” that limits speed to a paltry 6MPH. It was not clear immediately how to unlock that restriction so I just rode around as is. Even with the restriction it was fun. This thing is so substantial it feels like you are driving a vehicle, a very heavy duty vehicle. I quickly took it into the back yard and had fun tooling around. I let Cindy on it as well for a quick test, she had no problems acclimating to the controls. It is definitely a more total body movement to control the Segway, you can really lean into it in all four directions, depending on your speed.
Just as the sun was going down I finally figured out how to bypass the speed restriction, unlocking the full 12.5mph top end. Man, what a difference. It is really fun. I can’t wait to take it out to some of our riding spots to see how it goes. I suspect Cindy will be riding it more because of some of her physical issues right now but I look forward to having a blast on the grandfather tech of the electric unicycles I love so much.
So all day Friday I felt absolutely awful after the colonoscopy. Based on the symptoms which included fever, chills, and debilitating body aches, it became clear to me that this wasn’t a cold I was fighting, it was the flu. My energy level was just non-existent, watching TV was too much work, seriously. I went to bed that night feeling miserable, luckily it seems my fever broke sometime during the night.
On Saturday I was far from normal but at least I could function, even doing some normal chore stuff without having to take a 2 hour nap in between. It felt good to at least have regained some level of functionality. I got some 3D printing in, some WoW, and we watched a Hitman’s Bodyguard Saturday night with Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L Jackson. It was funny as long as you aren’t a prude. I am pretty sure the word MF’r was used triple digits in total. It was B+ for me.
Sunday morning my improvement continued from an energy perspective however I still had awful coughing fits and my red, sore nose continued to require regular blowing. Unfortunately as I was improving Cindy was sliding downhill. She obviously has whatever I have, only a day or two behind symptom-wise.
I actually felt good enough to go out on an EUC ride late morning. The weather yesterday was just about perfect with temps in the mid-70’s with low humidity. It felt so good to just be out cruising around after feeling so shitty for the last 3-4 days.
I have been having the check engine light on the Prius come on a couple times in the last week or so. My code reader indicated it was an error code that has to do with the coolant control valve. A quick internet search revealed this is a common failure in the 2nd Gen Prius. A video search revealed it was something that looks to be somewhat of a hassle but doable by someone with my mediocre mechanic skillset. I ordered a genuine Toyota part which I hope to install next weekend.
During the afternoon I got around to hanging up some stuff for Cindy in the office for her crafting. I 3D printed a bunch of roll holders to hold her Cameo vinyl rolls. I also printed these cool hexagon shaped storage cubes that we mounted on the other wall. You can add as many as you like to create a cool geometric looking storage grid. Finally we added a light over the top of her Cameo. Of course it is no ordinary light, it’s a Philips Hue bulb that you can voice control with the Echo.
I’m hoping my return to good health continues to accelerate. It seems once a year I come down with a knock me on my ass sort of illness, hopefully I will be in the clear for the rest of 2018.
Ok before I start recanting the nasty details of my first ever colonoscopy let me say upfront that combining a colonscopy prep routine while you are in the middle of battling an unpleasant cold is not recommended. Even now, 6 hours clear of the procedure I feel terrible with no energy and chills.
So the first part of the prep on Thursday has to do with what you are consuming which is basically liquid items with some jello mixed in. I thought the food restriction would be a real PIA but maybe because of my cold, I didn’t really miss it. In fact I only ate about half of what Cindy packed for me. Maybe the other reason is vegetable broth is very bland and unappealing.
So I was feeling pretty rotten most of the day, mostly from the cold. I wound up leaving the office a couple hours early so I could be in misery at home. When I got home I still didn’t eat anything else, I just had no appetite. Cindy was teaching a class Thursday night so I got to initiate the consumption of my first dose of Suprep by myself which was a good thing.
You take the contents of the bottle and pour it into a cup. You then fill the cup to a 16 ounce fill line with water. After you get it down you have to consume another 32 ounces of water within an hour.
So before I took my first swig I smelled the solution and it didn’t seem that bad, sort of resembling cough medicine. I didn’t expect this to be a huge deal so I set my cup by my PC and continued playing WoW. Well when I took the first sip I instantly started gagging, despite trying to hold my breath. It was so bad. It doesn’t taste at all as it smells, the worst part of it being the strong saltiness you get smacked in the face with. All of a sudden I realized this was going to be more difficult that I anticipated.
It probably took me about 10 minutes to choke it down, disgusting sip after sip. I could not believe just how bad it tasted, likely the worst tasting thing that has ever been in my mouth. After finishing the last of it I wasted no time drinking the additional water, I was desperately trying to erase the Suprep taste from my mouth.
So the fireworks began in roughly a half hour. They went on forever with me not finishing up my last bathroom trip until after 9:30. Cindy tried to console me as much as she could but I was just miserable and exhausted. I laid on the love seat most of the night like I was in a coma. I just had no energy at all. The idea of setting the alarm at 5AM to do another round of Suprep was on my mind heavily. It was much worse anxiety this time because I knew just how awful it was.
I fell asleep pretty quickly but then found myself awake around 2AM for some reason, it took me around an hour to fall back asleep, contributing to the exhaustion I was already feeling. When the alarm went off I didn’t waste much time, knowing the prep needed to be completed sooner rather than later. I decided to pull the GoPro out so the world could see the joy of choking down Suprep. I hoped I could shotgun it faster this time to end the misery but it still took at least a half dozen, gag filled swallows until I got it down. It was simply miserable.
So when I finally got the last swallow down I quickly drank the additional water to rinse out the taste as much as possible. Just like last night, about 30 minutes later the bathroom trips began but they eventually turned into nothing but clear yellow fluid. The force and amount of substance that Suprep causes again was something I never had experienced before. While I was waiting for it to flow through my body I again passed out on the sofas, feeling unable to do anything that required me to be upright. I spent the time watching the US gold medal curling match that I had on the DVR. To be honest, even now, punching in this blog entry feels like a lot of work. I would rather be laying down. Chills and exhaustion cut me off at the knees.
So again the bathroom trips lingered longer than I hoped. I even had to do one more pitstop and the endo center. Cindy drove me there and it was a good thing. I reclined in the passenger seat with my eyes closed most of the time. Once we got to the office I was surrounded by people that almost exclusively looked two decades older than me. I just wanted it all to be over with. Even though I knew I was in the home stretch I just felt too lousy to care.
So they took me back to the staging area. I stripped naked and put on the covers next to nothing hospital gown. As I got my IV inserted, the nurse was trying to engage me in conversations but I was too tired to say much more than a few words. I laid there with my eyes closed until the the anesthesia nurse came in. She rolled me back to the procedure room where loud rock n roll was playing. My endo doctor is a very laid back, and cool dude.
So I was instructed to lay on my left side. Once the sleep juice started flowing I was out in what felt like less than 30 seconds. The next thing I remembered was a nurse talking to me in the recovery room and Cindy walking towards me, looking relieved. It felt good to be awake. I was not thrilled however when the nurse said they did cut out a polyp but that isn’t that unusual. When the doc showed up the picture was a little less great. He said the polyp was half decent in size and this is exactly why proactive screenings are a great idea. They have to send out the polyp for testing but he said that I really should be looking at getting a colonoscopy every three years instead of the ten that is normal if they find nothing. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear at all based on what I just had been through but hey I’m ok for now.
After the procedure Cindy took me to Burgerfi, a place I never checked out. I had a veggie quinoa burger that was great. It felt good to get some real food in my system. I felt like I was pepping up while eating but once we got home I was back to feeling simply exhausted. I laid in bed and closed my eyes for a couple hours. Like I said, even now I just feel wasted. I am hoping a solid night of sleep will begin to lift this fog of illness and food deprivation. It’s weird, even after eating lunch I have no appetite, I’ve just been drinking water all afternoon.
So there you have it, I survived the colonoscopy. I hope my test results are favorable because having to repeat that process three times a decade would suck, badly.
I hope my energy level returns so we can have a psuedo normal weekend. Right now any chore that pops into my head gets immediately dismissed as requiring too much energy.
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.
