Archives August 2019

The shitty wet weather continued through Friday, leaving the grounds a sopping mess.  I decided to knock out mowing half of the yard after work on Friday, the front half.  I mowed around the standing water areas to at least give the grass a much needed haircut where I could.

Saturday morning Cindy came with me to the track to run.  My old routine was setting a 6AM alarm so I got out as early as possible.  The last couple times I have run I haven’t been setting the alarm.  I normally will wake up around 7AM on my own so I have been trying it that way.  Saturday was the first time I paid the price for it.

Right around lap 8 the sun completely cleared the horizon.  As it did it felt like someone turned on a heat lamp which is what I ran in for the last mile, making an already uncomfortable exercise experience more so.  Cindy, who has been running even less than I have, did well for not being out there in a long time.  She felt the heat as much as I did.

When we got home the chickens and weeding still needed to get done which we tag teamed.  After breakfast we headed to Home Depot where I picked up top soil, 20 pieces of sod, and five 50 pound bags of sand.  This was all for the chicken area of course which is the most wet area of all.  It unceremoniously started to rain on me again as I spread the dirt and laid down the sod.  I believe I cursed out loud at Mother Nature more than once.

Early afternoon I decided I was going to mow the back of the property, despite the rain that dropped only an hour or two prior.  It was like a monster truck meet where my Craftsman mower plowed through muddy areas repeatedly.  When I was done it looked like someone went nuts with 4 wheelers in the back yard.  Even though the standing water has started much later this summer compared to last, I already am beyond fed up with it.  I really hope to utilize this sod guy once the property dries out to get the ground level higher in the worst areas.

We had a garden success, something that is very rare in the summer, a decent sized melon.  I have tried growing melons a number of times and they have never been fruitful, pun intended.  Usually bugs take over before the melons can grow appreciably.  For whatever reason this year the plants are being more or less unaffected by insects.  I discovered what looked to be a nearly full size seedless melon hiding under the vines with at least another half dozen growing as well. We harvested the melon prematurely however, the inside was mostly white but luckily the chickens still found it to be quite edible.

Mid-afternoon Daniel and Katie came over.  Daniel was going to help me with my air handler UV light problem.  I bought another bulb but when I plugged it in I got no light.  Daniel said the ballast was probably bad.  After opening up the air handler what we determined was it was actually the transformer that drives the ballast which was bad, a rarity.

Daniel had a spare in his van that he put in there.  Once he did both the new and old bulb lit up.  I have another full UV light kit on the way which I plan to install on top of the air handler, where it was before.  However Daniel moved the existing bulb inside the air handler, right between the A style coils which is the area most likely to have organic growth.  When the other light set shows up I will open it up again and do the work myself since I have a clear picture of what goes where at this point.  With the new bulb location it is very easy for us to check for proper UV light operation as we can see it if we pull the filter in the return in our bedroom.

Saturday night we watched The Mule, with Clint Eastwood.  It’s hard to believe an 88 year old man is still starring in and directing films but Clint pulls it off.  The movie is based on a true story and it’s a strange story indeed.  I’d give it a B+.

Sunday morning Cindy was feeling the effect of the run so I decided to take the Nikola to Dunkin Donuts solo, something I actually thought I would have done multiple times during my nine day staycation but it didn’t work out.  The Nikola was a beast on the ride, with me rolling at 24-26mph for the majority of the 20+ miles.  It really is a great wheel but now I am wondering if I really need the KingSong 18XL as the two wheels fulfill the same need with the Nikola getting an edge on speed and battery size.

Later in the day Sunday I had a prolonged WoW session, the most time I have gotten to spend in the game for quite awhile.  I made a lot of virtual progress which almost feels like real progress, hence why the game has appealed to me for almost 15 years.

The daily heavy precipitation in our area just will not relent and it is aggravating me.  I would love to be able to at least get the chicken area raised and sodded but I can’t as long as the ground is this waterlogged.  A dump truck filled with dirt would destroy the yard and might even get stuck back there so I don’t have much choice but to grin and bear it for the time being.  I do plan to get a few pieces of sod hopefully this weekend to fill in some mud spots in the chicken yard at least.

Today Cindy has her first day of 2020 Census training.  She worked for the census once before at least 20 years ago.  It’s not a bad part time gig with decent pay and flexibility that should allow her to work around her fitness class instructor schedule.  She seems nervous but excited about the opportunity.

This weekend I need to try to find a way to mow at least some of the grass.  I also would like to get some extended riding time in if I can get a couple hours where the skies don’t look like they are on the verge of letting loose.

Below is the email I sent to my AC company regarding my thoughts about their recent service.  So far it has met with silence.

So Cindy has been complaining of an intermittent mildew smell in the house for a little while.  I have only smelled it twice but she evidently has a heightened nose ability.  Her complaints of the smell prompted me to get my normal AC company out to do normal preventative maintenance.  You may recall I scheduled the work the day prior and then the next morning no one showed up at that time.  I called the owner and she had evidently forgotten to actually put the appointment in her book when I talked to her less than 24 hours prior.   The end result of this was her getting one of her guys to still come over that day but in his personal car which had very limited tools inside of it compared to their normal van.  He didn’t even have a shop vac to suck out the drain line.

Anyway, during his visit I mentioned the smell.  He said he cleaned everything but it all looked good.  I asked him about the UV light, whose job it is to sterilize the air handler.  He said he checked it and it was dim but still working.  He advised I replace it the next maintenance cycle.  So after the PM Cindy still complained of the smell.

So last night I went and pulled the bulb out to take a look for myself.  It was not lit and something was rattling around inside.  Either the bulb had just failed since the PM or the guy didn’t really check it in the first place.  It was also brought to my attention by Daniel and reinforced by my research on replacement bulbs that our UV light was not installed as it should be. Our light was stuck into a hole in the supply side of the duct above the air handler.  Everything I read said the light is supposed to be installed INSIDE of the air handler where it can do the most effective sterilization of the coils.  I found this very annoying since I paid roughly $600 to have the light done, which upon my bulb research, I could have pretty easily done myself, correctly for about 25% of that amount.

So at this point I am pretty sure the onset of smell coincided with the bulb going bad.  I ordered a replacement bulb AND another complete UV light kit.  If things work out as I hope the end result will be having not one but two UV lights in the air pipeline.

Yesterday I finally pulled the trigger and bought a genuine Prusa MK3S printer.  Cindy and I met Joe Prusa at Maker Faire Miami last year.  Prusa is the benchmark that most 3D printers are measured against.  I have wanted one for a long time.  I opted for the kit version which saves about $250, allowing me to pay for the purchase completely out of 3D store funds, which is the way it should be.  Despite it coming all the way from the Czech Republic, the printer is supposed to be at my door on Monday.  It should be a fun build. To make space for the printer I will be giving away my original 3D printer, the FlashForge Finder to a new home.

Today I have a follow up with our employee clinic regarding my latest test results, more specifically the high thallium indication which is a real head scratcher.  This is something that is very unusual and trying to determine it’s source is likely to be very difficult as well.

Overall I would say my fatigue the last few months has been less prominent.  Although I do still feel it most when exercising, it isn’t as severe as it has been during certain time periods over the last year.  I am just tired of endless tests that lead to more tests that have an end result of basically shoulder shrugging.

I have really been selling a lot of 3D printed stands lately, last month was my biggest sales total to date.  I have been trying to get ahead of the curve by fully utilizing my hobby room print farm.  Last night I loaded up and had five of my six printers cranking out parts.  The growth of my 3D printing store has been unexpected and is purely through word of mouth.  The stands show up on social media or videos and generate interest from others.  The growth of the sales has been a pleasant surprise.

I have been trying to get the back of the chicken yard pumped out but the rain just continues to dump.  I sent a picture of the flooded area to a kid that graduated with Daniel who is in the sod business.  I had been talking to him about putting sod back there to help raise the ground level.  After seeing the picture he said he would suggest I get a load of fill first that he would spread and then put the grass on top of that, otherwise the grass would likely drown and die.

I told him I was down with that plan but the area needs to dry out first.  I also will have to temporarily cut the fence to make this work so he can access the area with his skid steer which will not fit in the existing four foot wide gate opening.  I am looking forward to this getting done, it’s something I should have done a long time ago.  This kid’s prices are very reasonable and save me a lot of ass busting work.  If this works out well I will likely have him add sod to the other areas of the yard that are flood prone.

So my return to work yesterday was mildly busy but not terribly so.  I had the opportunity to waste 30 minutes on the phone, most of that on hold with the NCH billing department.  Yes there is another chapter in the ridiculous ER billing fiasco.  You may recall that I fought with them about the initial bill sent to me for $950 which included a charge of over $700 for a single pill.  The end result of that was them agreeing to totally drop the $700 charge for the pill and them saying they would resubmit the claim to insurance.  So late June I get a new bill for $589.43 which was still more than I hoped but I had two months until it was due so I was just sitting on it, in no rush to give them my money.

So late last week I get a letter, not a bill from NCH.  It said I have an amount due and it now has magically increased to $733.45  WTF?  So I picked up the phone yesterday and got a woman in the billing department on the phone.  I gave her a brief recap of the events leading up to my call.  She said she needed to put me on hold to check with another department.  She puts me on hold and leaves me there, for 20 minutes.  Not once did she come back to apologize for the wait or to let me know wtf was going on.  Nope just hold music for 20 minutes after which I hung up, angry as hell.

I immediately call back but can’t get anyone to pick up the phone so I leave a message highlighting my situation, angrily.  I later got a message on my home number that the account has once again been “submitted for review” and there should be an answer in 4 to 5 business days.  I’ll tell you this experience with the modern day medical quagmire makes me want to avoid hospital care like the plague.  It’s incredible just how convoluted, inefficient, complicated and obscenely expensive medical care is in the USA.

Over my vacation I was pretty sure that I was going to have to be burying another chicken, Katie.  She has had a bad leg for over a year but in the last couple weeks she had developed the same lethargy that other birds have before they dropped.  She was weak, basically stood/sat around all day, and had minimal interest in food.  She even stopped making the cute little noises she is known for which to me was a sure sign she was a goner, the same pattern Kristen followed before she died.  Katie was so weak that I had to pick her up and place her on the perch at night, she couldn’t do it.

So all of a sudden late last week Katie bounced back, amazingly so.  She started being more mobile, eating, and even making her cute noises again.  I was so relieved.  For about a month we have been trying to give the birds cayenne pepper and tumeric mixed in with their food.  It helps battle parasites and worms naturally.  We also add rooster booster to their water, give them yogurt, and watermelon which all supposedly help the birds stay healthy without using toxic chemical dewormers.  This time of year is especially bad for the birds because they insist on drinking the dirty standing water which has countless harmful things floating in it.  So anyway, Katie is doing better and I hope it stays that way.

The latest outbreak of mass gun violence, not perpetrated by Muslim terrorists but by angry, racist, white males seems to have really awakened some people.  Some GOP politicians are actually using the words “white nationalist”, something that was taboo up until this point since they are a core and integral part of the Trumpers.  Maybe, just maybe there is enough momentum this time to actually get something done, but I doubt it.  The gun lobby in this country is so powerful that politicians cower in fear of the idea of crossing them, almost like they have a gun to their head.

So I entered the weekend a bit sad that it meant my nine day staycation was coming to it’s end.  I was also a bit sad about the turn in the weather where massive amounts of rain dropping in short periods of time had totally flooded out parts of the property.  I have at least improved my water relocation abilities with the new pump I bought from Harbor Freight.  Not only is it more powerful, it has the ability to support large 1 1/4″ outlet hose.  With my old set up I only had shitty 3/4″ garden hose attached.   I found 24 foot sections of flex pipe designed for sump pumps at Lowe’s.  I bought a bunch of them, chained them together and was amazed at the results.

It was like I had a fire hydrant open, the water was dumping into the drainage ditch that fast.  It pulls water so fast that we have to keep closer track of the water levels back there so the pump doesn’t run dry.  The problem is we have had so much rain that soon there will be nowhere to pump the water to as the drainage ditch is filled to the brim.  What we need are a few consecutive days that don’t include an end of days rain event.

All the moisture made mowing a no go this weekend as well.  The only other standard chore I dealt with was weeding in the sloppy, soppy property.  Saturday afternoon I decided to make an attempt to ride my new One Wheel Pint to Dunkin Donuts.  DD is a little over 10 miles from our door.  The Pint is rated for only 6-8 miles of range but my early testing made it seem like it could go farther so I wanted to test out that theory.  A strong headwind helped insure I failed my attempt but even with less than ideal conditions I exceeded the top range estimate.

Saturday night we went to see Hobbs & Shaw an odd spin off of the Fast and Furious series where they basically ditched the rest of the cast and made a Rock/Jason Statham action film instead.   It was an over the top, silly, but fun action film that Cindy and I both enjoyed. B+ all day long for me.

Sunday morning it was once again raining but I really wanted to get out to ride.  I checked the radar and it looked like the rain was moving north and east so I hoped if we headed south and west we would be ok.  On the drive to the Greenway it did not look good as we drove through blinding downpours at times.  We got lucky, as we got close to the parking lot the sun was actually out.  Cindy and I had a good time riding the Pint and Backfire Ranger X1.  At the end of the session Cindy decided to sit on the board and ride around go kart style, it was funny.

During the ride I got to test my new and expensive Rode Go wireless mic system.  I have been trying various solutions to get  consistent quality audio while riding which is challenging due to wind noise.  This Rode system seems to be the answer as the audio during the ride was clear and noise free, regardless of the conditions.

Yesterday I recharged the battery for our airsoft AK-47.  We have had a couple hawks that have been getting very comfortable hanging around the chicken area.  It seems like they are focused on grabbing small critters like frogs from the wet ground but we are nervous about them turning their attnetion to bigger targets like our hens.

I really enjoyed my nine days off and as I have said repeatedly, I have total confidence I could retire tomorrow and never be bored.  Unfortunately that is not a financial reality but believe me, once it is, I am jumping ship asap.

As expected, my days have been rolling by, passing quickly as I keep them pretty much filled with activities both project and hobbyist related.  Tuesday was my most triumphant day as I managed to get the Prius battery put back together and reinstalled into the car.  At this point the car has had around 150 miles on it since the work and it is performing well.  Swapping out individual cells is not a long term fix for an old battery pack but hopefully it will hold up for another 6-12 months.  The good news is I have all the tools and experience to swap out more cells if needed in the future.

My One Wheel Pint showed up on Tuesday but I didn’t really get a chance to ride it until Wednesday.  It seems like a great product that provides a real One Wheel experience with no compromises outside of less battery range.  I am excited to see how Cindy does on it.

The property had been doing very well this wet season, so far we have not had any standing water that lasted for more than a day or two.  Well on Wednesday that changed when we got absolutely pummeled, creating deep lakes around the property.  I set the pump back up in the chicken area to try to move the water to the drainage ditch.  That pump is now a few years old and doesn’t run consistently.  I decided to go to Harbor Freight and get a more heavy duty pump that supposedly can move 4000 gallons an hour.  I hooked it up and noticed and immediate difference.  Before the water was just running out the far end of the hose, now it’s shooting out.  I may try to increase the capacity further by connecting the pump to 1 1/4″ hose instead of 3/4″ garden hose.

I have been digging into a ton of little small projects, organizing and cleaning things up around the house.  Those sort of tasks are truly endless.  I have been finding time to do a lot of video production as well as you can see below.

I started off this morning with 12 laps around the track at a very slow pace.  I survived which is all I care about.

Speaking of surviving, I got a surprising call late last week regarding my latest round of testing.  They said a high thallium level was detected in the urine test.  Thallium is a heavy metal that in high enough concentrations can cause all sorts of bad things, up to and including death.  The low end of the scale where they get concerned is a level of .5 which is what mine came back at.  I need to do a follow up visit with the doctor to discuss further actions but for now Cindy ordered some stuff that is supposed to bind to thallium and help flush it out of my body.  I assume whatever the treatment is there will be a follow up test to see if the numbers move downward.