Archives 2019

When I left last you it was July 4th night when the annoying sounds of backyard pyrotechnic wannabes was all I heard, terrifying Elsa in the process.  Friday was less physical labor but still way too busy nonetheless.  After doing chicken chores and weeding I went out in the truck to make stops at Home Depot and Costco.  The biggest purchase at HD was a proper wheelbarrow, something believe it or not I did not own.  The closest thing I had was a small and definitely not heavy duty plastic yard cart that somehow has lasted at least a dozen years.

I figured the wheelbarrow would come in handy for future sod pallet deliveries as well as countless other home chores.  At Costco, along with groceries I dropped another $100 on a replacement UPS since the one I bought not so long ago for my main workstation shit the bed.

During the morning I was doing everything I could to get Kristen the chicken to eat and/or drink.  She has been going downhill for at least a couple weeks.  By now we are quite familiar with the signs, withdrawal from the other hens, lack of energy, and not showing normal interest in food.

We gave her a dose of dewormer earlyish on to see if it would help.  We also have been giving her probiotics mixed in with food that she loved so much that she would still eat like yogurt, berries, and watermelon.  Kristen has had rounds of feeling off before, in fact she laid a lash egg around a year ago which is normally a death sentence, however she has always managed to bounce back. We hoped this would be another example of it.

So up until Friday she was still eating and drinking albeit not as she should.  She even was up on the perch Friday morning, which she got onto herself without assistance Thursday night.  But as I was doing the chicken chores I could see she was really weak.  When I walked up to her and picked her up without her even trying to struggle I knew it was bad news.  I accepted that she was unlikely to pull out of this nosedive.

Birds try to keep up a good face right until the very end and Kristen was a fighter.  However later in the afternoon I saw she was motionless in the same spot I had placed her earlier to get her out of the rain.  She was gone.  As is always the case, I cried when I realized she was dead.  I always have an emotional reaction to one of our birds dying but Kristen was special in a lot of ways.

She was one of the chickens that without a doubt knew her name.  When we would say it, even if we were a few feet away she would often squat down, expecting some sort of interaction from us.  When her sister Stephie mysteriously disappeared she took Stephie’s place as the outcast in many situations.  Ironically when Daelin the rooster was running wild attacking any hen he could get his beak on, Kristen was the last one that would go toe to toe with him and fight him.  I’ll never forget when she stared him down, flared out her neck feathers and then tried to jump on his back.  Eventually she stopped fighting and ran away from Daelin as well.  It was actually Daelin chasing Kristen that was the straw that broke the camel’s back and moved us to re-home him asap.  We simply could not tolerate him trying to harm our little angel, Kristen.

I buried Kristen in the back of the property with the other birds, about half of which got dug by predators.  In order to hopefully avoid that I dug a grave approaching three feet deep and we wrapped her body in burlap and a plastic bag.  As one final counter measure I grabbed a dozen palm fronds from the fill pit and covered the grave with them.  I was very sad that we lost her but in some ways glad it happened when we were home instead of Saturday when we were gone all day long.  My feelings about animals in general make chicken ownership a much more emotionally wrenching experience than it would be for most.

Later in the afternoon I tasked myself with replacing the mower blades.  When I was finishing up the mowing on Thursday I noticed the deck was sounding loud.  I figured the badly beat up blades were out of balance.  When I replaced the bad blades with new blades I fired them up and expected everything to be great, it wasn’t.  The one side wasn’t spinning normally and I even heard them making contact with one another so I turned it off immediately.  My current theory is the blade spindle on that side is bad.  I just happen to have an extra one laying around somewhere so I am hoping to get a chance to try swapping that out tomorrow.  Having the tractor down for any prolonged period of time during summer is not a manageable situation.

Late in the afternoon I dropped off Elsa at Ali’s place.  Shugs was there.  They agreed to watch Elsa for us until Saturday night while we went to Supercon in Miami.  There are five human beings in the world that Elsa trusts, myself, Cindy, Katie, Ali, and Shugs, that’s it.  Anyone else sends her running to a corner to hide.  I felt badly leaving her there of course but she had the three other dogs to entertain her and I knew she was in good hands.

Friday night we did our final prep for Supercon which is a shadow of what is required when you are going there in full cosplay mode.  Instead I just picked out the shorts and World of Warcraft shirt I was going to wear and made sure the Tesla was charged to full.  I set a 6:15 alarm for Saturday so I could go out and clean up the chicken coop before we left.  We pulled out somewhere close to 7:45 as we wanted to try to arrive as close to the show opening of 10AM as possible.

The drive across state in the Tesla went pretty flawlessly.  I utilized auto pilot for the vast majority of it.  The feature makes highway driving nearly stress free as the car does a great job of transporting you quickly with a large, automatic safety barrier in place.  I had nightmare ideas about parking for the venue but we wound up finding a lot that was no more than a 10 minute walk from the convention center which cost $20 to park all day.

Cindy and I have been to a number of “cons” at this point and my initial impression of this one was that they had their shit together.  We moved through the check in process very quickly and before we knew it we were walking into the main exhibition areas.  Getting there early meant we got to have a couple hours where you weren’t elbow to elbow with human beings at every turn.  As the day wore on the crowds got much more dense.

Even so the convention center is absolutely humongous so even though the inner cris cross rows got maddeningly busy, you could always escape to the outer perimeter which had room to breathe.

I originally thought we would be going to a few specific events that were on the schedule.  One of the coolest was a Hearthstone tournament that unfortunately was cancelled for some unknown reason.  We did sit in on a panel of some voice actors for a bit but the majority of our time was split between walking around while doing people watching and checking out the exhibits.

In years past we bought very little, if anything at all from the cons.  When we were in costume it seemed like every 30 seconds we were being asked to pose for another picture, thanks to the incredible job Cindy did with the costume creation.  This year with no picture requests we spent a lot more time looking at stuff.  I actually bought about a dozen old comic books, just to read and have.

There was a point in my life that comic books brought such anticipation and excitement as a child.  I had a TON of comic books that I think got unceremoniously sold at a yard sale eons ago in PA.  I am looking forward to thumbing through the pages of my new collection.

The celebrity list this year was not as impressive as some other cons we have attended.  Cindy was excited to meet Jon Cusack who was originally supposed to be there but later bowed out.  Cindy did go up and say hi to one of the actors from The Office.  While she was talking to him I was within spitting distance of George Takei, who surprisingly had next to no one in his line.  I should have just walked up to him and said hi, but since he was selling autographs for $70 a pop I felt like I would have been somewhat of a dick to try to get some free interaction with him.  I think in reality George would not have cared at all and would have been fine with the gesture.  Of course I know him from Star Trek but I really did not really start liking him until he became a regular on the Stern show.  He is responsible for some historic funny moments.

We headed out of the convention center around four.  The plan was to find a supercharger, eat dinner as the car charged and then head home.  Well this sounded simple but turned out to be very frustrating, from a lack of information.  Cindy and I navigated to two spots designated as super chargers in the app.  However both times the only thing we saw were parking garages that you had to pay to enter, well that can’t be it, right?

Well when the third location once again took us to a parking garage I said f it, I guess we will go in.  I grabbed my parking ticket and started to ascend the garage.  On the third level we found the chargers, finally.  It seemed crazy to me that I had to pay to enter a parking garage to supercharge but as I thought about it more, I was in Miami, free parking does not exist.  We hooked up the car and walked to the street to look for something to eat.  We were in the Miami Art district.

The car said it would only take 45 minutes to charge back to 90%, we were in the high 20’s when I plugged in.  We found a decent place to eat but literally had to throw down our food, the car charged that fast, so fast that I upped it to charge to 100% to buy us more time.  We got back a couple minutes after the car had finished, supercharging is pretty amazing.

The drive back across the state went smoothly as well.  We picked up Elsa from Ali’s.  It sounded like she had a great time.  Elsa got her first ride ever in the back of the Tesla.  I have a dog cover I bought for the car awhile ago but this was our first chance to use it.  It was a very fun but exhausting day.

This morning after chicken duty and paying my bills I wanted to get an EUC ride in.  However Katie and Daniel had asked if I could help them wall mount a second tv, this time in their bedroom.  I decided to combine the two things together.  I told Cindy we could load up the truck with the tools I need but then I can ride on the Monster to their house while Cindy takes the truck to get coffee and meet us there.  She wasn’t thrilled with the plan but it killed two birds with one stone.

The less than great part of the plan was it required me to go on a section of Everglades Blvd that doesn’t even have an appreciable shoulder on the road to ride in.  I had to ride that section for a few miles.  Luckily since it was Sunday morning the traffic was light and I didn’t have major issues.  Hanging the tv went well, I think that is the last thing they will need from me, at least for now.

This afternoon we got out to see a matinee showing of the new Spiderman movie, something I had been looking forward to ever since seeing Avengers Endgame.  Unfortunately I was disappointed with the effort.  I don’t want to spoil things for others but there was just a lot of things that were dumb in the movie to me.  I am never a fan of scenarios where the viewer is tasked with constantly determining what is real and what is fake.  It wasn’t a horrible movie but it definitely was in the bottom third of the Marvel movies I have seen.  I’d give it a B.  You know the movie isn’t great when the post credit scene is the thing you found most interesting about the entire experience.

We have gotten a ton of rain the last few days.  We were pretty dry before this wet onslaught and my freshly laid sod appreciates it but I am hoping my last two days of staycation have enough good weather where I can get some outdoor stuff wrapped up and maybe have a chance to get some more PEV riding in.

As is often the case my staycation so far has become a work detail.  It started Tuesday night when I got home.  I wanted to hook the Tacoma up to the RV and get it pulled out of the yard so I would be ready to roll out early Wednesday morning to Camping World.  It had been awhile since I fully hooked the RV to the truck, utilizing the stabilizer bars.  It took some trial and error but I eventually got everything hooked up and secure.

Getting the RV out of the gate to the front yard was extremely frustrating.  I wound up being too far to the right side.  I had less than an inch of clearance, so little that I had to remove the gate and turn down the hinge pin to avoid scraping the trailer.  Finally after maybe 15 minutes of futzing around I pulled the trailer out into the front yard, without damage.

The drive to Camping World went ok.  The Coleman trailer is right at the upper limit of what a Tacoma can tow.  The top speed I hit during the almost 40 mile drive was 60 mph which seemed fast enough.  I found the little wiggle that was initiated every time a vehicle passed the RV to be a bit unnerving.  I kept both hands on the wheel and just kept plugging away.

Eventually I arrived at the Camping World parking lot.  After getting some direction and a piece of wood, I started to unhitch the trailer from the truck.  As I did one of the sales guys came out.  I told him I was dropping off the RV for Cindy who had an appointment later that afternoon to sign the paperwork for the consignment.  Gary seemed like a decent guy.  I noticed the woman that we bought the RV from a year and a half ago was no longer working there.  Not surprising as I assume RV sales is much like car sales, a high turnover profession.

When Cindy went there later in the afternoon she got numbers that weren’t exciting but somewhat expected, at least with a cosignment arrangement.  What was surprising was the lowest of low ball offers on a straight buy of the trailer, they offered less than half of what the trailer cost new 18 months ago, geezus.  The salesman did seem confident that he would be able to get the trailer sold before the 3 month contract expires, we hope so.  It seems a little odd to not have the 26 foot trailer parked in the back yard, but not in a bad way.

Shortly after I got home my delivery of sod arrived.  It felt sort of awesome to have a full pallet of grass, something I have been only getting 30 pieces at a time from Home Depot and at a price premium up until now.  I had a doctor appointment at two so I didn’t want to dig into laying the sod until after I got home.

This appointment was  a follow up to the blood work and coronary CT scan that I had done several weeks ago.  This is all a continuation in my efforts to determine why I have off and on fatigue when doing high exertion and cardio exercise for almost a year at this point.

Instead of meeting with the endocrinologist for the follow up I met with a nurse practitioner that is part of the practice instead.  She actually seemed more thorough than the doctor.  She said my coronary CT results were not terrible with some calcification detected in only one artery.

She said my thyroid numbers were good too.  When she got to the testosterone numbers it at first seemed like I was good there as well with an overall score of 695, a very good number for an old fart like me.  However the number for my free testosterone was low which can still be problematic.  She advised that we do a retest in a month or two to see how similar the number is which can vary based on several factors.

We talked about some other possibilities.  She is going to have me tested for Lyme’s disease something that is a possibility based on how much time I have spent outdoors over the last almost 20 years working on our three acres of land.  I also mentioned that despite me being tested for all kinds of stuff, a heavy metal test has not been done.  With my pescatarian diet (seafood only) mercury poisoning is a possibility.  So I will be getting more blood work done in the near future which hopefully will start to narrow down what is going on.

When I got home it was time to dig into the grass project.  It seemed like rain was imminent but I started anyway.  I had bought 16 bags of top soil to throw down but that only covered a fraction of the area where I threw down the sod, most of which just got laid on the existing grass.   Luckily the pallet was close to the area where I laid it down.  It took me around an hour and a half to empty the pallet.  The area I targeted is right by the driveway and turns into a lake during wet season.  I am hoping the four or 5 inches of additional elevation will prevent that from being a normal occurrence.  I already know that I will be buying quite a few more pallets in the future.  Yes at $330 a pop it isn’t cheap but it is something I should have looked at doing years and years ago. After doing the grass work I returned inside limping with a sore back, and it was only day one.

The fourth of July was just another day to get stuff done.  After tending to the chickens, Cindy and I loaded up the truck and the Tesla with stuff for Katie and Daniel who spent their first night in the new house on Wednesday.  I also loaded up some tools as they wanted some help getting a TV hung up in the living room.  I thought the install would be more involved than it turned out since they were only connecting the tv via wi-fi instead of a hard line.  We got the tv on the wall and the kids were happy, it made it seem like a real house somehow.  After making sure everything was brought in Cindy and I headed out.  Cindy is sad about not having the baby and Katie in our house but she is excited for them to have their own place as well.

When I got home I moved into more work, mowing the yard.  It was hot as hell but luckily the canopy on the tractor makes it bearable.  I also mowed the area outside of the fence, something that gets done infrequently.  Afterwards, for fun, I sprayed down the parts of the pool cage that were looking particularly green with a 50/50 water bleach solution.  It doesn’t yield as good of results as a full pressure washing session but it doesn’t take nearly as long either.  The end result was good and should buy me another few months before I have to pressure wash it all.  Yes, I was tired.

Tonight we had a huge storm that at least was good for all of the newly placed sod.  We hoped it would wash out the redneck army from their backyard firework displays that absolutely terrify Elsa, unfortunately the rain stopped and the noise is going on as I type.  Elsa is hiding by my feet, under the desk.

Tonight we watched the animated Spiderman:Into the Spider-verse movie.  I had heard lots of good reviews and I now see why.  It’s unlike any super hero based movie I ever saw.  It’s so different and stylized as well as funny and entertaining.  I’d give it an A, a great rental if you are a Spiderman fan boy as I have been my entire life.

I’m glad I have a good chunk of the work that needed to get done handled already.  That doesn’t mean I am done, by any means.

Last night after dinner I suggested to Cindy that she comes with me to the school with Elsa.  I thought they could walk around while I fooled around on my Mten 3 for a little bit.  Despite not riding the little fun wheel for quite awhile, it took very little time for me to reaccustom myself to it.  After only a couple minutes I was reversing direction routinely.  I probably spent more time going backwards than forward.

Elsa surprisingly seemed very content and happy to walk around the parking lot with us.  She had a big dog smile on her face for most of the time.  Even though it was a very quick 20 minute session of riding, it felt good to do it to help clear the cobwebs.

So we have had Cindy’s RV officially for sale for at least 6 months, probably longer.  During that time we had exactly one person come out and look at it and a couple other inquiries that never got past the electronic correspondence point.  Every week the RV bakes in the sun in the yard it is losing value. With wet season approaching which could make moving the RV out of the backyard difficult to impossible depending on the amount of standing water, I have been pushing for us to do something soon.  That something is to take the RV back to Camping World where we got it and have them either buy it from us outright or sell it on a consignment basis.

It’s a good move for us as it gets the RV on the lot of a dealer that is filled with nothing but potential buyers.  If someone can’t quite swing the cost of a new unit, this one will give someone substantial savings on a like new RV, at least on the inside.  The outside of the Coleman is going to need some TLC as sitting in the sun for a year and a half has faded some of the paint but I think it could be revived with some skilled buffer work.

Cindy talked to someone from the dealership yesterday briefly.  They encouraged us to try to get the RV to them before Fourth of July as that is a busy time.  I hope to accomplish just that.  My plan is to get the RV loaded and hooked up to the Tacoma tonight and then head to Camping World first thing tomorrow morning to get there when they open.  I am really crossing my fingers that this works out.  We already are going to be losing a ton on the RV as is, I’d like to be able to finally stop the bleeding.

Tomorrow also starts my week long staycation which is already filling up with things to do.  Tomorrow already potentially has RV drop off, sod delivery, and a follow up appointment with the endocrinologist on the schedule.  I have a feeling a good portion of the days off will be equally busy.  We do have one definite fun portion roped off as Cindy and I are attending Miami Supercon on Saturday.  I just hope the surely crushing amount of people in attendance doesn’t negate the fun/geek factor of the day.

As I talked about, I did my track run early Saturday morning instead of during the sweltering heat of a June evening in Florida.  The change in schedule definitely was beneficial as the temperatures were about 20 degrees cooler than what I dealt with the prior two weeks.  I didn’t wear any sort of timing device for the run but I can tell you that physically I felt better both during and after the event.  For the remainder of the summer, meaning into October, if I run, it’s going to be early.

I tended to various tasks during the day.  We stopped at Home Depot for me to grab almost 20 bags of top soil.  I want to use it as part of my ground elevation project that I will be taking on during my staycation.  I have a pallet of sod that is supposed to arrive on Wednesday.  I am hoping the 500 pieces of grass will allow me to raise some of the low spots that are closest to the house.  Depending on how it goes, I may be ordering a lot more pallets in the future, it’s much cheaper overall than buying it 30 pieces at a time from Home Depot.

Late Saturday afternoon Cindy and I made a trip to the movies, something we had not planned earlier in the week.  I had heard about the re-release of Avengers Endgame with the bonus scenes and post credit stuff.  I loved the movie so much I was ok seeing it again in the theater, something I have NEVER done before in my life.  We also ate our dinner inside the theater for the first time since the three hour long film progressed straight through supper time. It was somewhat challenging to eat a shrimp taco in the dark.

Despite only seeing the movie for the first time two months ago it was no chore to sit through it again.  It was interesting as you would see quick shots and mini-scenes that were added to the re-release.  Multiple times Cindy and I looked at each other and said “I don’t remember that”.  Even though I knew what was going to happen, I still had emotional reactions to certain scenes, I just couldn’t help it.  The post credit stuff was cool as well and got me even more excited to see the new Spiderman movie over 4th of July weekend.

Sunday morning Cindy and I went to ride at North Collier Park on the One Wheel and her Minipro.  I had not ridden the One Wheel in awhile, despite it being the most fun PEV I have.  Cindy and I had fun during the ride and as you can tell from the video, things got a little EXTREME at times.

I also shot a brief video updating the state of the coop solar equipment which for the most part has been running great.

Katie and Daniel started the moving process this weekend.  They don’t have much stuff but they don’t want to actually sleep there until they have internet at the house which for most millenials is as important as running water.

I have a super brief two day work week followed by seven days off in a row.  As mentioned I have the sod project on the books but I also have a number of other things to get handled during that time.

Last night the rain stayed away allowing me to complete phase three of the weeknight lawn maintenance project, mowing the back yard.  Doing so required roughly another 90 minute of tractor time which is not bad.  If we are not consistent mowing back there and it gets very high the job takes even longer.  Although it consumed a lot of hours, I’m glad the lawn care is done and can be excluded from the  weekend to do list.

For several days my right ear has felt weird.  It coincided with what felt like drainage going down my throat at times.  I have had a long history of ear infections so I was hoping to avoid that scenario.  For the past couple days I had been using alcohol drops in the ear to try to disinfect/clean the ear but I noticed little difference.

Last night after my shower I went a different route, putting a 50/50 solution of peroxide/water in the ear and let it sit there for a few minutes.  I laid on the bed until the peroxide stopped bubbling and then headed to the sink.  I grabbed the rubber syringe  and shot more of the solution into the ear at a high velocity.  After a few shots I was somewhat shocked when I saw a small marble sized ball of gunk pop out of my ear.  It was nasty.  I assume that was the source of my problems.  I need to proactively be hitting my ears with this solution on a regular basis to prevent a repeat performance.

This weekend will likely be busy as the kids close on their house today and plan to move stuff in shortly thereafter.  Not only do I expect to be helping with moving but also assembly of some of the new items they bought for the place.  It’s exciting for them of course.  I am of course looking forward to getting full use of our house back as well.

Last night on the way home I had the GoPro once again mounted to the glass roof of the Tesla.  I wanted to shoot video of some of the changes I have noticed with the most recent software release for the car, specifically Auto Pilot.  It seems in certain situations the car is making better decisions than it did in prior releases.  Learn all about it here.

My plan was to mow the yard last night when I got home.  The skies looked very menacing but I still was unwavering in my resolve to get the chore done.  When I pulled in the driveway I saw Cindy, who knew of my intent, already out on the mower, she was almost done.  The only thing she left for me was the chicken area which I started but did not complete due to a massive deluge of rain opening up.  I will try to finish it up tonight.

Of course I greatly appreciated Cindy’s effort.  It’s one of the things that I love about her, that she is willing to show her feelings via actions, along with words.  I have been in word only situations before and that just doesn’t work for me.  Just saying you appreciate something takes zero effort and means next to nothing to me.  Showing true appreciation through tangible action is where it’s at, at least in my mind.

So much like last week I decided I wanted to try to make productive use of my midweek night by getting some lawn maintenance done. This time I wielded the weed whacker as I spent over an hour and a half trimming the yard.  Despite it being after 6PM when I started, it was still melt your boots hot.  I was  sweating like a pig.  It felt good to get the work done but tonight part two takes place as long as the weather cooperates, mowing with the tractor.  There may even be a part three Thursday night if I feel motivated enough to mow the back yard.

So my buddy and volleyball partner extraordinaire Rich reminded me yesterday that we are now 20 years past our most historic volleyball win ever, the  1999 Pottstown Rumble.   In 1999 Rich and I were a nearly unstoppable force in the BB  ranks of amateur volleyball in the Reading/Lancaster area.  We won several tournaments that year and had a very favorable win/loss record overall.  However no win was bigger or more memorable than the 99 Rumble.

The Pottstown Rumble is the biggest grass tournament in the northeast and the BB division that Rich and I were playing in had the most teams, around 125, yes I am not joking.  Now those of you familiar with volleyball may laugh and say BB is a lower skill division. I would normally agree with you.  However the Rumble was such a big tournament that players routinely dropped one or even two skill levels down to play because the competition level was so elevated.

The day was simply amazing as we faced adversity time and again.  We played a ton of teams that were more experienced and more skilled but managed to find ways to take them down one by one.  Rich and I had very opposite roles in our dynamic duo.

Rich was a more cerebral player and hustled his ass off all the time.  I was the type that got the most satisfaction while hitting.  Rich was the type that got the most satisfaction by being able to make plays on opposing players hits, running down corner shots, and digging hard driven balls, that was his thing.  I can’t tell you how many times I thought points were over but Rich’s rabbit like speed kept the play alive.

I was a very one dimensional player most of the time.  Yea I could do the basics like passing and bump setting moderately consistently but my thing was attacking the ball.  I loved being able to get a good approach and just swing through a ball cleanly driving it to the ground or off some part of an opponents body in a violent way.  When I was unsuccessful it just made me angry and that anger often fueled me to be even more aggressive the next time.  Of course many times that anger could be detrimental as it would make me lose focus.

But on that hot and muggy day the chemistry between Rich and I was perfectly in balance.  With over 120 teams in our division it took forever to complete play.  Our finals match was actually completed on center court under the lights, long after most teams had already gone home.

The team we played had just steam rolled their opponents in their semi-final game.  This team looked so good that before we even started I recall us talking about how second place wouldn’t be bad. ( I don’t think I liked that talk)  The championship match was epic.  We just ground these guys down who started to short circuit as we won a few points.  The one kid had a horrible temper and booted the ball off the court a couple times after they lost a point.

We actually sort of wound up dominating them, winning by a comfortable margin.  I remember the moment clearly when the ball dropped on their side the final time. The feeling of accomplishment, exhaustion, and excitement that followed was a once in a lifetime, lightning in a bottle moment.  I think it was damn close to 10PM before we got out of there.  It was truly an amazing day that I will carry with me for the rest of my life, my greatest sporting achievement ever. Thanks to Rich for making it possible.

I quickly redubbed (copyrighted music) my 99vball video which includes some footage of the 99 Rumble in it.  Yes the video quality is horrible and it was one of the first videos I ever produced so please excuse the cheesiness.  If you would like to read my detailed recap of the day that I posted back then, here it is.

When I look back at the first decade of blog authoring (started in 03) there is a definitive difference to present day, I was more mean.  I used to openly complain about people and situations much more frequently and in many examples, in a less than tactful way.   Hell I used to basically weaponize the blog in my second marriage, using it as a way to complain about facets of the relationship instead of dealing with them more directly, and privately.  Although at the time I never even thought about it, now as a half centurian plus, I try to think more before I pop my emotions like a full zit all over the blog pages.

Some people may regret the change as more opinionated, angry, and frustrated words generally are more entertaining to digest.  I was having a convo with a friend of mine last week that was somehow trying to tie the fact that I used to watch the Apprentice on tv somehow made me a hypocrite for not supporting Trump as president.  My response was very simple but true, “assholes are entertaining”  There are lots of entertaining assholes in the world, however that isn’t the dominant personality trait I am looking for in the President of our country.

The reason this popped into my head was today at the gym I was exposed to more idiotic behavior that I would have called out in the past.  But since I am now older and wiser I’m not going to talk about the idiot that sings to himself as he ties up a Smith machine for 45 minutes, the gaggle of old men that use weight equipment as park benches to discuss breaded salmon recipes, or the lazy pieces of shit that can’t put stuff back where they got it from.  Spewing negative energy like this out into the world is something I try to do less of nowadays, sometimes unsuccessfully.

So despite the thermometer reading something stupid like 93 degrees with humidity levels that rivaled that number, I headed over to the track after work on Friday to run.  Cindy decided to follow my dumb lead.  I need to rethink doing runs on Friday evenings during the summer.  It was a tradition that started in the “cool” winter months.  Doing it now is borderline suicidal.

So anyway, I hit the track and felt nearly as miserable as the week before.  The two bright spots were I completed full 5k distance and I felt less like death Friday night although both Cindy and I were pretty wiped out.  It was the first time she has tried running in forever.  So anyway I think I will once again start hitting the 6AM alarm to do this on a Saturday morning when it is 15-20 degrees cooler.  It’s lunacy otherwise.  My pace on Friday was almost two minutes a mile slower than what I used to consider “normal”.  It’s frustrating.

Saturday I kept busy around the house outside for a good portion of the morning.  As soon as the sun gets 10-15 degrees off the horizon it’s like someone turned the broiler on.  I was sweated through my t-shirt almost instantly.  We did a late morning errands run that included DD, gas, Home Depot, and Pinch-A-Penny.

Some of that gas was used to run the generator that I had hooked up to the RV to run the AC for a few hours.  Both the generator and the AC in the RV need to be used periodically to ensure things keep working as they should.  The RV has to get sold somehow.  It has been for sale for more than 6 months with only minimal interest.  We have it priced aggressively but we live in the RV and boat capital of the world it seems.  Trying to sell a used unit is not an easy task as we have found out.  The big problem is once wet season starts to hammer us and the back yard becomes a lake, it is going to be very tough to try to move the RV around.

Late Saturday afternoon I headed out solo to grab a couple groceries and look for Smirnoff Triple Black Ice.  Miller-Coors decided to not do a limited summer release of Zima this year so people have been looking for substitutes.  Several have said that this Smirnoff variety is pretty close to the Zima experience.  Online we found that Total Wine supposedly carried the flavor so that was where I headed.  Of course they did not have Triple Black but they did have some other varieties, I grabbed a six pack of grape, and one of the original flavor.  I tried both over the weekend, they were very good but neither was an exact match for Zima flavor.  My search for Triple Black will continue.

Over the weekend I got my monthly deposit notice from Google for my AdSense revenue.  It was a milestone as it was the first time I had crossed the $400 mark.  After having my monthly revenue waffle around for quite a few months, the Tesla was the impetus for a sharp increase in channel activity and subsequently ad revenue.  Once I get the Tacoma paid off I am hoping the YouTube revenue will more than make up the difference in my automotive budget column.

Sunday morning Cindy and I decided to give Marco hill riding another try.  We attempted it the week before but got washed out in a big way.  Luckily yesterday was bright and sunny.  Not so luckily it was also incredibly warm.  Despite the heat Cindy and I had a lot of fun cruising up and down the only hilly region of Collier County for about an hour.

Later in the day I decided to take on another Tesla project, installing rim guards on the exposed alloy wheels.  For whatever reason the rim on these wheels sticks out unusually far from the tire, making them a prime candidate for curb rash.  The rim guards act as a barrier to this damage with the side effect of adding a cool color accent to the wheel/tire combo.

Installation of the guards was a little tricky and as is almost always the case, I made a few mistakes along the way.  However overall I am happy with the resulting visual.  The instructions stated that you should not drive the car over 50 mph after installing the guards so the adhesive can set properly.  It worked out ok as I had to drop off one of my old EUCs to Fed Ex that I sold so the Tacoma was a better fit anyway.

Sunday afternoon out of the blue Cindy got inspired to make some decorative fondant cakes.  When I walked in from the rim work she showed me the first of several PEV based designs.  They were very cool and surprisingly detailed.

You never know when Cindy is going to come up with these random acts of creativity but they are always fun to bear witness to.

As I have been walking around the house the past week or so I have been making mental notes of tasks that I want to knock off during my extended staycation around the fourth of July.  I need to keep the list manageable as I don’t want to just work during the time off, some fun would be appreciated.

Yesterday I bought our tickets to Florida Supercon, an event we skipped last year.  Two years ago we went to two cons and it was a bit crazy.  For both of them Cindy invested incredible amounts of time and effort making elaborate costumes for the events.  When we went to the shows people appreciated the effort as we were constantly being asked to have our picture taken, which was cool, at first.  After awhile you realize that you get to see very little and with my costume at least, it was very uncomfortable due to heat.

With Cindy being wrapped up in new grandma glow she doesn’t have the time or energy to worry about making special costumes this year which won’t be the end of the world.  We plan to make it an out and back day trip, leaving early in the morning for Miami in the Tesla and then driving back across the state that evening after a super charging session.  Doing it this way alleviates the need for trying to find a reliable chicken sitter, something that we desperately could use.

After work today I plan to make another trip to the track to attempt another running session.  As described in the blog, last week I felt absolutely awful both during and after the run however the hope is each time I go back it gets just a little bit easier.  I know it’s an odd thing that I keep subjecting myself to an activity that I don’t particularly enjoy that makes me feel like shit.  The only draw is the sense of accomplishment when completing this arduous task, something I don’t want give up on.  So many people as they age just accept the path of least resistance.  I want to keep doing the hard thing because that is what forges your intestinal fortitude.