Archives February 2020

I spent all afternoon yesterday stuck at one of our branches.  We had an installer trying to bring a car registration kiosk online, unsuccessfully.  There were multiple problems, three to be exact and by the time we called it for the day at almost 5PM none of them had been fixed.  I gave the installer some advice along the way on some of the issues.  He took some of it but was very hesitant to do anything that he wasn’t told to do by the company that subcontracts him to do the work.  The one bright spot during the slog was Katie, Daniel and baby DJ showing up at the branch unexpectedly.  They were there to apply for their homestead exemption.  I sat in the lobby with them for a bit and held DJ a few times.  Hopefully today some progress is made on problem resolution but I’m not holding my breath.

This weekend I want to get the property whacked and mowed in prep for my sister’s family visit.  For something different Cindy and I are going to a spring training game Saturday night. It should be a unique way to spend an evening.  I have plenty of other things to do as is always the case.

Next week my sister arrives late Monday afternoon and they leave next Friday.  I took Tuesday through Thursday off so I can spend more time with them.  They have a long list of want to do’s while here, possibly more than three days would comfortably allow but we will see how it works out in practice.

I still have those four loads of fill looking at me in the back yard.

Originally I indicated that I was going to only get three loads of fill, I thought that would be more than enough to elevate the chicken yard.  However after the third load was dumped I reevaluated and asked if he had time to pick up a fourth load of fill.  He said he did so a little before noon load number four was dropped off.  It seemed odd to be writing a $700+ check for some piles of dirt in the yard but I reminded myself of those horrible summer days where the chicken area looked like a lake.  This was the first step in alleviating that situation.

Going into this I was worried about the potential property damage of having massively heavy dump trucks rolling across the yard.  I tried to take precautions by marking sprinkler positions in the path so the trucks could avoid them.  There were a couple pipes that were still in the danger zone.  I tried to protect these by putting sections of 2″ x 12″ lumber over the pipes to spread out any pressure applied to them.

After the last truck left I went out and fired up that sprinkler zone, hoping all of the sprinkler heads would pop up as usual.  Unfortunately that was not the case as the ground near one of the sprinklers started turning into a sinkhole as water rushed up from beneath.  I grabbed the shovel and started moving wet dirt to see the damages.  The pipe there had snapped clean, despite the board being on top.

I determined I would be able to fix the damage with a single 90 degree reducing fitting which I ran out to Home Depot to purchase what I needed.  By early afternoon I had the damage fixed and when I pressure tested it a few hours later all was well.  Next up I have to determine if I am going to get someone to spread the mountains of dirt for me or if I am going to rent equipment to do it myself.

Later in the day I finally got my Skydio 2 drone in the air.  There are some weird quirks about the drone like the requirement to charge the battery while it is installed on the drone (unless you buy a $125 stand alone charger) or the inability to fly at all if you don’t have a micro SD card of sufficient speed in the memory card slot.

I also bought the “beacon” which sort of looks like a TV remote.  It gives you simplified control of the drone and doesn’t require you to be interacting with your phone to do so.  The experience with this drone is quite different to what I have been accustomed to with the various DJI drones I have owned, which you actually pilot.

Although you can buy a $150 controller for more conventional flight, the Skydio is meant to be more or less autonomous.  You launch it, have it lock onto to the object you want it to track and follow and that’s it.  The drone has 360 degrees of obstacle avoidance cameras to allow it to intelligently maneuver it’s surroundings while keeping it’s subject in view.  You can change the perspective in many ways as well, which I only grazed the surface of so far.  My hope is utilize the drone in some of my ride videos although I need to be thoughtful about the environments I use it in.

I watched some of the democratic debate last night but not much.  The constant speaking on top of one another gets extremely annoying.  Personally, I think town hall format Q&A’s are much more beneficial if you want real information.  The debates they air on network TV are more or less a circus, which is exactly what they want. Fighting sells.

I’m working from home today so I can tend to the three loads of fill that are being delivered.  When I made arrangements for the delivery the guy told me the first load should arrive around 8:30 which sounded good.  I awoke at my normal time this morning and went out to work on chicken clean up.

About 7:15 I see a dump truck stopping in front of the house.  I was confused but ran out front to see if that was the guy “Tony”.  Well it turned out this wasn’t Tony but someone he arranged to deliver the first load.  This guy spoke basically no English and I had to communicate with him mostly by pointing and hand signals.

Since he was not Tony he wasn’t aware of the game plan and he started trying to back into the yard from the street.  I ran back and stopped him again and with more hand gestures told him he needed to pull in forwards while avoiding the sprinklers I marked.  Somehow I got him into the right spot in the chicken yard but when he dumped the dirt he sort of snail trailed it across the yard instead of making one nice pile.

After he was done he said something about asphalt and needing a hose.  I got Tony on the phone and asked him to translate.  He said this guy had to go pick up a load of asphalt next so he had to hose the bed of the dump truck out completely so the dirt didn’t mix with the asphalt.  I was able to stretch the hose from the well head over to the trucks location.

Tony himself brought the second load and it was a much smoother experience since he knew what I wanted.  He also dumped the fill in one spot so I should have room for the third load which he is in the process of delivering now.  Once he dumps it I will again close the chicken fence up with a few staples.  I also need to go smooth out four huge ruts the first guy put in the neighbors yard when he tried to back in.

I talked to the guy that does some yard work for my other neighbor last night.  I saw he had a Bobcat that he used for some sod work a couple weeks ago.  I asked him if he would be interested in using it to spread the fill.  He said the Bobcat was actually his son’s but he would ask.  No price has been mentioned yet so if it’s reasonable I will let him do it, if not I will rent one myself.

Once the dirt is spread all that remains is for me to decide if I am going to pay a sod company to drop off some pallets of grass that I will spread myself or if I can find someone that actually calls me back to do the work.

As mentioned previously, after work on Friday I headed to Sugden Park to get my run in.  The temps during the day had dropped with the arrival of a cold front.  When I got there it was down to around 65 degrees which is pleasant to run in.  The gusty winds that came with the front weren’t as pleasant to run in but hey, you can’t have everything.

I completed two circuits of the 1.5 mile course giving me similar distance to my track runs.  The mild elevation change from the front of the course to the back made the effort level a little higher than I am accustomed to but that’s a good thing.  The run was much more visually interesting, completing two laps that circled Lake Avalon instead of 12 laps around a soccer field.  I can see me opting to run there more and more in the future.

Saturday in addition to normal chores I worked on doing more prep for the scheduled delivery of fill on Tuesday.  I disconnected more of the fencing around the chicken yard so the dump truck should be able to back in there.  I also marked the sprinkler heads in the yard so the truck does not drive across them.  I also wanted to relocate one of the sprinklers by the garden because it was in a bad spot.

I grabbed my shovel and carefully started excavating around the existing head.  The plan was to use a longer section of flex pipe to move the sprinkler out of harms way.  As I was removing earth I cringed when I heard the unmistakable SNAP of sprinkler pipe breaking.  I was pissed.  Evidently when I made this joint 10-15 years ago I was out of right angle fittings and instead used a T.  To cap that unused section of the T I had a small section of pipe with a cap on it, that is what I broke.

So I took stock of what PVC fittings I had and then headed to the hardware store to grab some more along with high strength PVC cement.  My intent was to try to put a fitting OVER the T joint, with it’s own cap.  I primed and glopped in a ton of cement as the fit was not super tight.  I was nervous when I applied water pressure it would blow apart but it actually stayed intact when I tested it the next day.

Saturday night Cindy suggested we try out a new restaurant that opened up in our area, Oak and Stone.  Ever since it opened a few weeks ago I have seen large crowds as I drove by.  Going on a Saturday night was going to mean waiting for sure.   Wait we did, a little over an hour in total.  Luckily O & S has a beer wall system that makes passing the time more enjoyable.  You can get a RFID wrist band that is tied to your credit card.  You then go to the wall of 48 beer taps, hold your band to the sensor and dispense whatever beer you want which is measured and charged by the ounce.  It’s a very cool system that Cindy and I both enjoyed, me with my Miller like IPA and her pineapple cider which was real tasty.

Like I said the place was packed, and the energy level in there was great.  It almost reminded me of the good vibes I used to get from the Naples Carrabbas, which we waited 5 minutes to get seated at last Saturday night.  When we finally got seated via text message we were assigned a waiter with a great personality who was attentive.  Cindy and I both enjoyed the food as well.  It really was a homerun experience and I look forward to visiting Oak and Stone regularly in the future.

On Sunday we once again had some good weather with temps in the 50s early and around 80 later.  I got out on my new MSX to ride the Logan Blvd extension, a new north/south roadway into Lee County.  It was a unique opportunity because the extension was not being officially opened until today meaning the fresh asphalt served as a super wide, car-free, bike lane.  It was cool to explore the roadway on the roughly 16 mile ride.  I am really enjoying the MSX.

I spent the rest of my Sunday video editing, cleaning up the hobby room, and tying up some remaining loose ends.  Over the weekend I did print an amazing light saber 3D model.  It prints as one piece but includes a collapsible “blade” as part of the design.  With a strong flick of the wrist the blade shoots out of the hilt and then can me pushed back inside.  It is really cool, I have printed three of them so far.

So although I have given up on the sod guy doing the work in the chicken area, I did call the reference he gave me for fill that will be needed to raise the ground level.  I told him I was interested in three loads of fill.  Later in the day I was wondering if there would be any issue getting through the gate that leads to the backyard.  I texted the guy and asked how big of an opening he needed to get the dump truck through.  His answer of 12 feet didn’t give me a good feeling as I was pretty sure the front gate is only 10 feet wide.

When I got home last night I confirmed with a tape measure that the gate is indeed 10 feet wide.  The gate on the side of the property facing the neighbors is actually a 12 footer but it would be impossible to swing the truck in that way without tearing the hell out of my neighbors yard.    I texted the guy back with the info.

I asked him how wide his dump truck was.  He said it was 8 feet wide plus the mirrors.  I told him that we had successfully moved an 8 foot wide RV in and out of the 10 foot gate several times.  I also told him the fence was only four feet high so his wide mirrors should clear the fence posts without a problem.  He said we could try which is all I can ask.  The delivery is scheduled to happen Tuesday morning.

I need to do some prep ahead of the delivery.  I want to mark the sprinkler head locations in the yard so we can avoid driving over them.  I also need to unfasten more of the chicken fence and possible remove one of the fence posts.  When I was originally talking to the landscape guy that never calls me back he indicated we would dump the fill outside the area and then he could use his Bobcat to move the fill into the chicken area and spread it.

My revised plan is to have a big enough opening in the fence where the dump truck can just back into the area and dump two loads back there, which should be a big time saver.  The third load will likely go in the low area outside the fence line so we can further reduce the size of the lake that forms during wet season.  I then have to decide if I want to rent a Bobcat to push the fill around or do it in a more manual fashion.  A Bobcat would be a timesaver and more “fun” although it will likely add another  $400-$500 to the project cost.  After that I will get some sod delivered, hopefully all the way into the backyard where I can cover the freshly elevated ground to eliminate future high water events.

Tonight I plan to do something different with my run.  Instead of circling the local track for 12 laps which is undeniably boring, I am going to change at work and go to nearby Sugden park to run there.  I have run there a handful of times before as well as ridden my PEVs around the scenic pathway.  If I find myself enjoying the more scenic and diverse running experience there I can see it becoming a more regular venue for me.

I watched more of the democratic debate last night than any prior iteration.  The main reason was I was interested was to see how Mike Bloomberg, who has been rising in the polls despite just entering the race a couple months ago.  He has done so almost exclusively by TV ads and little else ( pun intended).  It is a testament to how malleable much of the electorate is, how easily they can be swayed by money alone.  Well despite his 50 billion plus, he got destroyed in the debate.

He came out of there looking like he was suffering from PTSD as he was repeatedly assaulted by the other candidates.  Elizabeth Warren struck the killing blow digging up all of the NDA agreements Bloomberg has with females to buy their silence over alleged incidents of sexual misconduct.  Bloomberg asked if he would waive the NDA’s verbally on the spot which he awkwardly and sheepishly declined.  He came out of the debate terribly in my opinion and I think he would be best served to take his mountain of cash and go home right now.

Amy Klobuchar, who consistently has received praise for her prior debate performances, finally cracked.  Mayor Pete obviously rattled her when he pointed out she did not know the president of Mexico’s name when asked the other day and making light of it.  He doubled down on the pressure pointing out she serves on a committee that deals with Mexican relations.  She instantly departed her normal happy countenance and instantly flipped into B mode, accusing Pete of calling her dumb, which he didn’t do.  Pete smacked her around on her voting record as well on immigration issues which again solicited a similar response from Amy.  It was the first time I had seen her lose it, and it wasn’t pretty.

Joe Biden has turned into a cartoon character, or more specifically, the grinch.  All he did all night was act outraged repeatedly as he stared into the camera with a very grinch resembling look.  The way he portrays himself you would think he was president during Obama’s run.  Hell it was almost like he thinks he was Dick Cheyney.  Joe is done, just like Bloomberg. No one cares what he has to say.

Elizabeth Warren as I mentioned earlier chopped off Bloomberg at the knees and I think overall she represented herself well.  However I just think her loud and generally angry persona hurts her as a female candidate, which is ironic because that is what many would see as a strength for Bernie.  I like Warren but I have a hard time seeing her being able to generate the sort of energy needed to get the voter turnout necessary to make change happen.

I think Buttigeig really is a gay, white Obama and that is meant as a compliment.  His measured, calm but intellectual responses to both questions and attacks is pretty amazing to watch.  I respect intelligence and the ability to communicate effectively immensely when it comes to political candidates and he gets an A+ in those areas.  I think the fact that he has some ultra-rich supporters isn’t quite as nefarious as Bernie and others have painted it to be although I do understand the concern.  I really do like his approach to issues like health care that may be characterized as less radical and more realistic.  I think seeing him debate Donald Trump would be a fascinating dichotomy of polar opposites in personality and beliefs.

So all that remains is Bernie.  I love Bernie, I have contributed to Bernie’s campaign.  I believe in Bernie’s core concepts that the system has been rigged for decades and needs to be retooled.  Bernie was his usual loud, gesticulating self, saying many of the same things we have heard since 2015, which still remain true, in some cases even more so.  I think his policies are so out of the box that they could mobilize a good portion of the 30-40% of normal election non-participants to get out there, which is a republican’s worst nightmare.

Bernie is not a young man, which concerns me, but he obviously has no shortage of energy or enthusiasm.  The bigger issue I have is although I love his ideals, I am also a realist and know that without ripping out a large part of the seated congress, none of his policies have a shot of coming to fruition.  You can’t implement Medicare for all without congressional support and it isn’t there, nor do I see it being there anytime soon.  Without term limits and outlawing the lobbyist system, I have no idea of how that would ever change.  So part of me is conflicted because the bottom line is I want to see some sort of appreciable change take place.

So anyway, it will be interesting to see the fallout from last night’s debate and it will be interesting to see which candidates rise and fall as a result.

This was a non-standard morning.  Cindy set an early alarm so she could accompany Katie to take baby DJ for a procedure in North Fort Myers.  At first I didn’t think I would fall back asleep but I did somehow.  After eating breakfast I headed straight out to the coop to get it cleaned before leaving.  It was still pretty dark so the chickens were still all on the perch.  I wound up carrying each hen out one by one.  Each birds reaction to being held is different which is funny to me.

Originally I assumed with taking the time to clean the coop before work I would be pretty late getting into the office.  I walked in the door only five minutes late which was unexpected.  I’m hoping DJ’s procedure goes well and his happy little existence rolls on with only a small bump in the road.

For some reason when I was walking out to the car last night after work I was thinking about a childhood activity that provided me endless hours of entertainment, table top bowling.  I was a real bowling enthusiast as a kid.  We had a bowling alley only a couple miles from our house.  I participated in several bowling leagues and used to watch the PBA tour religiously on ABC.

My brother and I used to have a full size bumper pool table in our attic bedroom.  Bumper pool was ok but I got my real enjoyment when we would put the top on the table, giving me a nice flat surface to “bowl” on.  The pool balls were all red and white except for two of them.  One was a red ball with a white dot and the other a white ball with a red dot.  I always preferred using these as my bowling ball because the dot allowed you to visualize the spin you were imparting much easier.

The “pins” were a collection of various empty bottles that I had collected.  I don’t think I even had a full set of 10.  I would even manicure the “lane” by spraying down a fresh coat of Pledge so the ball could slide in a more realistic way, similar to a real lane.  Most of the time my “games” were solo, I don’t think I ever kept score.  I just had fun spinning the hell out of the ball and seeing if I could control the hook enough to knock down the various pin configurations I would set up on the other side.

As I thought about those simple days I compared it to modern times were children have become addicted to screens and seem unable to be entertained without them.   How did I manage to be so entertained for so long with a pool ball and some empty bottles….

Yesterday had minimal chores outside of chicken duties.  Cindy was babysitting DJ during the day so that added additional fun and laughs to the day off.  I got out to ride for the third day in a row, again on the MSX.  I wanted to try some different skills at North Collier park like slow riding, tight turns, backwards, and seated riding.  I also did a few high speed runs.  One of them I filmed with a stationary camera perspective that made it seem like I was going ridiculously fast as I went by.  I mean, I was going fast, about 30MPH but it looked way faster.

So even though I wasn’t “working” in a conventional sense, my 3D store sort of kept me busy probably a couple hours during the day between keeping parts production rolling, assembling stands, along with processing and packing orders, the time adds up pretty quickly.  Don’t get me wrong, I feel very lucky to have something like this organically grow to the scale that it has but it definitely requires a time investment to keep it rolling.

I forgot to mention that the replacement of the metal panels on the front of our roof completed last week.  It’s nice that the roof no longer has tiger stripes in it.  Hopefully I am all set with roofing needs for the next 30 years or more.

My Valentine’s Day was filled with exertion and effort.  At lunch I did my 400 rep calisthenics workout followed up with a uncomfortable 12 laps around the track after work in high humidity conditions.  Later in the evening I went back to the office to get some after hours work done which included swapping out three network switches and relocating seven rack servers.  I crashed into bed exhausted to a high degree.

Saturday had a number of smaller chores/tasks that I attended to in the morning followed by a long range testing ride on my new Gotway MSX wheel in the afternoon.  I logged around 36 miles on the ride and reached speeds in excess of 33 MPH during the trip.  The EUC has the title as the fastest in the world, I could definitely confirm that.

Saturday night we did our belated Valentine’s dinner.  We headed to Carrabbas as I had a gift card my sister sent for Christmas.  We had not been there in awhile.  Wow have times changed.  We arrived about 6:30 which is prime time.  In years past, going to Carrabas at this time on a Saturday night during season would easily result in huge crowds with 90 minute or more wait times.  Because of the huge influx of dining options in our area over the years and the sterilization of this location where they removed all of it’s uniqueness from other locations, Carrabas isn’t that big of a deal anymore.  We got seated in 5-10 minutes and there were plenty of spots in the parking lot, wow.

Our server appeared to be somewhat new and she sort of was klutzy with her delivery of service during the meal.  The food itself was tasty but I couldn’t help missing the days of the old Carrabas which were filled with many lasting memories as I dined there with family and friends.

Sunday was a nice day as well that was not overloaded with work.  During the afternoon Deb came over for a visit.  We headed over to the school for a bit where she tried her hand at riding the One Wheel.  She had one fall but overall did very well, rolling along pretty steadily after maybe 45 minutes of practice.

I was hoping to have the fill/sod work done in the chicken area by now.  The guy that went to school with Daniel has not been very responsive to my requests to get the work scheduled.  He ignored a number of texts and didn’t return a call I made on Friday so i think I am done with him.  I’m not going to beg someone to take my money.  I will either find someone else to do the work or I will rent a Bobcat and do the work myself at this point.

My Monday looks to be following a similar timeline as yesterday.  After tending to a number of things this morning I plan to get back out on my MSX this afternoon.  If you are wondering what the inside of an EUC looks like, wonder no longer.

When I had my Bell’s Palsy scare last year, it required a visit to the ER because initially we thought it was a possible stroke.  My two hours in the ER generated a bill of over $6000 which was outrageous in itself but par for the course in our perverse American healthcare system.  So the end result of this was my being sent a bill of roughly $1000 for my portion of the expenses not covered by insurance, which was still ridiculous, in my view.

I asked for an itemized bill which broke down all of the individual charges, one of which really stuck out, $700 for one pill.  When I did some checking on my own, a 10 day prescription of this medicine costs around $20 yet somehow the hospital was charging me 35 times that for a single dose, it was pure lunacy.  I called up the patient billing department and raised hell, repeatedly.  The initial scripted response was something along the lines of hospitals don’t give discounted pricing on medicine like a pharmacy does that takes insurance.  I called bullshit on that immediately and refused to take no for an answer.  Eventually I was told the $700 charge for the single pill was going to be totally dropped.  Great, I win, or so I thought.

Keep in mind my visit to the ER was last APRIL.  Since then I have received several bills for varying amounts.  Whenever I did I called up, said WTF, and was told it was some sort of error and that the bill would be resubmitted and adjusted.  Back in August I received a bill that showed I owed nothing.  Finally the saga was over, right?

Well that ended yesterday when a fresh bill arrived from the hospital, some 10 months after the incident.  The amount due is now back to what the original amount was, almost 1k.  This system is meant to break you down, to frustrate you to the point where you just throw up your hands and write a check to end the stupidity.  Of course I don’t give up that easily so I will once again pick up the phone and verbally spar with someone until I get the bill “resubmitted” once again. Idiots.

Cindy is babysitting today so we aren’t doing a traditional Valentine’s Day dinner tonight.  Instead we hope to get out tomorrow night for a date.  I also have to go into the office tomorrow morning for a few hours to get some work done.  I have Monday off so I felt like having an extra day in my weekend takes some of the sting of working Saturday away.