Last night I played volleyball despite having a lot of lower body soreness going in. I took three Advil prior to playing which kept me functional. When we started it was just brutally warm and humid. I was soaked and covered in sand after one game. Luckily some clouds rolled in later. Unluckily they were rain clouds that wound up cutting our session down a little bit, which was fine with me. My body didn’t need any more pounding than necessary.
While I was there I heard some more sad news about another volleyball player I knew and played against had passed away last week. He was 55, a year younger than I am. He left behind a one year old child as well which makes it even more tragic. This news came a few months after the passing of the beloved woman that used to organize our volleyball nights. This was one of those increasingly frequent reminders of just how uncertain life is and why you need to put the time you have to good use. You never know when the hour glass is going to drop that last grain of sand. Since I got done playing early due to rain I had a chance to go grab dinner at Bruninas afterward.
For the first time in a few weeks I have a normal two day weekend. It is looking to be a busy one. In addition to my normal pickleball sessions I have some wheel work to get done and another subscriber from my YouTube channel coming to town to ride with me on Sunday. I have met up with a lot of people that only found me via my channel and it universally has been a positive experience. I am hoping for yet another example.
After my huge one day lay off from pickleball I wound up playing twice yesterday, once at lunch and then again in the evening. The nighttime session went longer than I anticipated, right around three hours. I was on my way out when an attractive woman I played with earlier asked if I could stick around to play one more game. Despite two sore knees I agreed, of course.
A common mantra in pickleball is “one more game…” which refers to just how much people love playing the sport. No matter how long someone has been playing, they always can play just one more. Well as is often the case, one more game turned into four more games. I didn’t leave the courts until after 9:30 PM. I iced my right knee when I got home. I’m walking without a limp today which is good, since I am supposed to play volleyball tonight. It never ends.
I watched the new Shogun series on FX several weeks ago and enjoyed it. My buddy Larry suggested that I check out the original Shogun series that aired in 1980 that had Richard Chamberlain as the lead. He said it was good. After adjusting to the stark difference between 1980 production value and modern day I have been settling in and enjoying the different interpretation of the book the older series uses versus the FX version. No, I never read the book.
As I mentioned previously, I played a ridiculous amount of pickleball since last Wednesday and my knees in particular have taken a beating. I was asked to play again last night and I opted to take the night off. My brain would love to play all day every day but my body just is not able to fulfill that desire. I have to try to be a bit smarter about it. That being said, I am scheduled to play today at lunch, lol.
Instead of pounding my knees I had a nice night at home. I finished building a stand, played some WoW and once again tried to get the new tire I installed over the weekend to spin true on my Begode Master.
I have tried pretty much all the tricks I have at this point. I have deflated and massaged it, lubricated the bead, pounded it with a rubber mallet and even over inflated the tire, hoping it would seat itself correctly. None of it has worked. I have two theories as to what is going on.
One theory is because the tire has sat in a box for two years with the last year of that being in the scorching hot attic, it has warped somehow and will never roll true. The other theory I have is maybe the tube inside the tire is twisted or laying in an odd way which is causing the deformity. Unfortunately the solution for either problem is to take the wheel apart again and investigate further.
For a good portion of last year I was struggling to keep my weight up. It could have been from stress, poor meal prep, inadequate calorie intake or who knows what else. There were times when my nighttime weight was in the low 170s. This has been one of the many changes I have been making since the calendar flipped to 2024. My weight now is back up to the 185 range. I am hoping the weight gain has been more muscle than fat.
I eat more than I used to but it isn’t necessarily the best type of calories. I have increased my protein intake however. When I eat my lunch I have added yogurt that has 25 grams of protein and after the workout I drink a protein shake that has 30 grams more. I think this is a weight I would be ok with maintaining, it’s what I was hanging around for the majority of the last 10 years. My recent addition of the doorway pull up bar should only help with adding muscle. Despite some recent mental valleys, my desire to slow the progress of father time in whatever ways I can remains iron clad.
Today at the gym I saw my one buddy that plays pickleball with me. He was involved in the game with the idiot that I got into the loud argument with yesterday. He was talking about the incident and said how that was the first time he ever saw a look in my eyes like I was ready to explode. I told him it doesn’t happen very much but once that normally slow burning fuse is lit, it can get scary.
I have been told this over my lifetime by the few people that have witnessed me getting truly angry and how they can see a change in my eyes when this occurs. I’m never the type that would actively seek out conflict or violence but if you push me, I am going to swing back, literally if need be. Luckily it didn’t come to that yesterday but the door was definitely opened. Anyone that sees this side of me is always a bit shocked and I understand why.
If there was any doubt, I am officially addicted to pickleball. Over the 4 day weekend I played around 12 hours of pickleball. Despite heat indexes that crawled into triple digits I was out there smacking the ball around. I enjoyed it of course but I also went longer than I should have, my knees feel all kinds of sore here as Memorial Day weekend comes to a close.
I also have voiced concern on a live stream about how often I drink alcohol nowadays. I have gone out to eat and/or drank every day since Wednesday. Do I think I am an alcoholic? No. Do I drink much, much more than I used to? Absolutely. I know part of it is because I live so close to a variety of eating establishments that I go out to eat way more than I did previously which usually includes drinking. Part of it however I am sure is tied into other darker things that have gone down in the last year or so. Drinking helps me in my overall “f it” attitude when it comes to certain aspects of my life.
One of the projects I worked on over the weekend was installing a road tire on my new Begode Master. The swap went well where I used a new technique to get the new tire mounted utilizing zip ties. However the new tire seems to be a little bit wonky. Even after a bunch of massaging and reseating it has a wobble to it that I need to correct. Of course I did a video outlining the process.
Today while playing pickleball I had a loud and angry argument with some guy that kept screwing up the score. The first couple times I let it go but when he did it again I got tired of it and pointed out very clearly that he was wrong. This guy did not like my refusal to back down and the argument escalated to the point where we were face to face a couple feet apart. I was waiting for him to touch me. If he did things would have gotten real ugly, real fast. Evidently this guy has a history of being an asshole. Anyway the three other players in the game (including myself) told the guy we were done playing with him. He stormed off to the parking lot, still convinced he was right. Fck him.
Over the weekend I received my new doorway pull up bar. Since moving to my new house I have missed the luxury of having an easy way to do pull ups like i had at the old place that had the bar park I built myself. The doorway bar set up I bought seems decent and will allow me to drop in random pull up sets pretty much whenever I want which will be a big plus for my overall strength routine.
On Sunday night I met up with my vball buddy and his wife as well as other people I met from the salsa class. We went to a trivia night at a local bar and had a good time drinking, eating and being bad at trivia. However I also had moments of pause as I watched the other married couples acting like happy couples should.
It made me think about how at this age I thought I would have had everything figured out. Hell five years ago I thought I already did. I remember wondering why some people struggled to find a relationship they could be content within. I had been in long term relationships almost non-stop for 30+ years so I thought these people that were not in one had some sort of issue. Fast forward to present day where I have floundered about for coming up on three years, trying to find a person worthy of investing in, and failing, repeatedly.
I have soured on the process, so much so that I am not doing much to change my relationship status. My attitude is basically if it happens, it happens but I am not going to chase it. I know I am a good human being with desirable qualities. Hopefully something organically comes my way but I am not going to aggressively hunt for it as being alone also has it’s distinct advantages. So much so that it is going to take a special person to make me want to move away from it. Maybe it’s all futile, maybe it’s not. All I know is I can’t allow myself to fall into the same sort of traps I have in the past.
I finished watching the two seasons of Iron Fist on Disney plus. The main lead is annoying where he flip flops regularly between being a king fu master to a schlub routinely. There is too much whining and not enough Iron Fisting, if you know what I mean. I can see why it was killed after two seasons. I may go back and finish up the seasons of Daredevil I never saw.
It is clear that pickleball is a major focus in my life with it starting out as a once every week or two thing to multiple times per week to now, two times in the same day. Yesterday I played at lunch and then met up with the group I have now played a few Wednesday evenings with. We “only” played 90 minutes last night which felt short compared to some of my recent sessions that have approached four hours. After playing the five of us went to Tacos and Tequila to eat/drink. We didn’t get out of there until close to 10.
Our group was two married couples and myself. It’s a bit weird being the 5th wheel as the single person in the group but it’s a role I can play as long as is necessary. Being alone is better than being with the wrong person, a hard truth.
Tomorrow I begin my four day Memorial Day weekend. Let’s see what sort of trouble I can get into.
Last night I took my new Master V4 out for it’s initial ride. The wheel is going to wind up looking much different than what you see in the picture once my Clarkpad kit arrives but last night was to see how it felt.
When I added air to the shock the other day and hopped on the wheel it felt like a pogo stick. Luckily I was able to adjust the rebound down where it felt better last night. The wheel feels powerful and quick. I was riding 30mph+ easily even though I was at less than half battery. I only rode six or seven miles but it was enough to let me know I will enjoy the wheel. I am hoping my bumper kit and pedals show up within the next week.
Last night I did the work to convert my Monday night live stream into a podcast. I have no clue how many people listen to it as a podcast, I guess it would make sense to track it, but I don’t. After the conversion I jumped in and played a little WoW, gaining a level on one of my characters. I have adopted a dual leveling strategy where I level two characters at a time, alternating between them so I maximize the amount of rested XP I am using to speed up the process. I still have a loooong way to go. Having both of these characters be healers definitely helps though.
I wanted to extend my upcoming Memorial Day weekend so I decided to take this Friday off, despite just having Monday off as well. I don’t have anything specific on the calendar but sometimes I enjoy having a blank slate that I can backfill as desired.
Facebook loves to spy on you and then show you content based on what it learns. One of the things it has learned about me is I have interacted with various things regarding relationships. Based on that it decided to show me this image. Good call. Would I get married again? Man, I would have to be so dead certain that I had the right person to go there. It’s going to be hard to shake the self doubt I have in my ability to properly discern that based on what has gone down.
Last year I hadn’t posted in nearly a week and when I did I complained about being down without giving details. Looking back, I know exactly what was behind that state of mind.
A good portion of the day Friday was spent being very frustrated at Tesla’s inability to get all of the numbers right for the deal. Although I got the official trade number late Thursday the loan was never updated to show the trade and the payoff for the trade in it so I was at a standstill.
Once again I tried calling and responding to the text message thread associated with the sale, as you are supposed to and got no response. Finally around 1:30 I got a call from one of the advisors at the Fort Myers location. He said he submitted a request to the finance department to update the terms Thursday night but nothing had been done yet. He knew I had an appointment to pick up the car at 3. He said he would resubmit the request. I took the leap of faith and headed up there on the 45 minute drive, figuring one way or another it would work out.
I walk in the showroom and quickly find the guy I talked to on the phone, a nice young kid in his 20s. I told him that the Tesla app showed no change in the finance status. My advisor was frustrated, he said in the past something like this would have been corrected in 15-30 minutes. He said the layoffs that Tesla has implemented has made requests like these take much longer. Pretty much every aspect of Tesla appears to be short staffed as a result. Amani said in this location all the managers were laid off in addition to a number of other advisors that run the showroom. He said the entire sales operation now was handled by only three people which seems insane as the parking lot was stuffed with hundreds of Teslas. My frustration now softened, realizing just how shitty of a situation the workforce cuts has put their staff in.
Amani sent more messages to three people in the finance department asking for assistance. I asked him about simply calling someone to get it fixed. Nope, that’s not an option, they have no ability to call the finance department, which seems insane. He apologized and just asked that I take a seat and chill. I had nowhere else to go so I took seat.
They did have a Cybertruck in the showroom that I got to check out. It was cool being up close to one but it did not make me feel badly for not buying one. For the kind of things I need a truck for my Tacoma is just better suited to my needs, and it’s paid off. The Cybertruck is incredibly long, it would never fit in my garage unless I removed everything else in it.
So after I was sitting there for maybe 45 minutes a message popped up on my phone that there was an update to my sale. Finally someone had fixed the numbers. After I went in and confirmed my acceptance we were finally able to proceed with the delivery. Amani directed me to my new blue Model Y Performance and I was on my way, roughly 90 minutes later than expected.
I really liked the blue color in person, the car looked great. The drive home was fun. A few times I stabbed the pedal a little bit to get a feel for the power. It felt like someone shot you off with a rubber band as the car just wanted to leap forward, it felt scary fast. I didn’t get home till close to 5:30. By the time I walked and fed Elsa it was closer to 6. I decided to run over to Bruninas for dinner where I got to talk to Meaghan once again.
Saturday morning I met my friend Sue to play pickleball at East Naples. It was a very sweaty but enjoyable session. During the afternoon I handled a number of small tasks around the house. One of those tasks was taking a short nap if I am being honest, I just felt wiped. On Saturday night I decided to go somewhere I had not been to for a long time, Stix, the sushi place very close to my house.
Stix was a favorite place that I went to regularly with my ex. Since we split in December I have only been there once, taking Dawn when she visited. I decided to sit at the bar, the first time I did so there. They had live music playing with a handful of older couples dancing which was cute to watch. The bar area was not very full but eventually two women came to sit there, one seat away from me. I later found out they were sisters.
The one woman was a tall blonde that still had a good body despite her being older. If I had to guess the first number in her age probably started with a 6. I could tell that 20 years ago she was probably very hot but even now, she wasn’t bad. I talked a bit with them off and on. When it came time to pay I finally got to use the gift certificate I was given as a Christmas gift by you know who, however my tab only used about half of it. I handed it over to the ladies, telling them they should use the remainder to help pay for their bill. The blonde was surprised by my offer but was appreciative. I told them I did not want to keep the gift certificate but of course did not tell them why. I may have been able to explore things further with the blonde but did not feel motivated to do so. If I was just looking to score that could have been a missed opportunity but I really am not wired that way.
Sunday morning I played pickleball again. I played a couple hours with Sue and then played another hour and a half with another guy that I know. Once again it was brutally hot and humid. I refilled my large water jug twice, just trying to stay ahead of the hydration curve. I had no spot of clothing on my body that was dry by the end of the session.
During the afternoon I worked on getting some stuff done to the new car. I moved everything over from the old car including the aftermarket rubber protection I received from Lasfit which protects the floor, kick panels and the back of the rear seats. I also installed the Lasfit mudguards that had been sitting in a box since Christmas. Sunday evening I decided to grab dinner at Tacos and Tequilla. They had a two for one special on house margaritas so I indulged myself. Just to be safe I let the car drive me home via FSD.
I also produced a video on Sunday talking about my purchase of the new car.
My day off on Monday was productive. I called the place that has done the window tinting on all of my Teslas to see if I could get my car in. They said they had one appointment left later in the afternoon so I took it. I dropped the car off early however, throwing my Veteran Patton in the trunk and riding it back home. After I got home I went to the campus gym to get a chest workout in as well as head up to Bonita for some more errands. I also had my house cleaners visit yesterday so I wanted to stay out of the place while they performed their magic.
During the afternoon my new wheel arrived, a Begode Master. This is a wheel that has been out for awhile but this was the 4th version of it where they have improved a number of things from the original. It was a real good deal by today’s standards. I only unboxed it and added air to the tire and shock. I will get out on a test ride this week for sure.
I rode my Patton back to the window tint place late in the afternoon. I had to hustle. I only got a call saying it was done at 4:30. They closed at 5PM. I threw on my gear and hauled ass on the wheel, averaging speeds of 30+ mph for most of the ride. I made it to the shop with exactly four minutes to spare. The matching tint looked great although it cost $100 more than my last Y cost in 2021. Inflation is everywhere you look.
Last night I decided to do a live stream talking about both my Tesla and Begode master purchases. It went for about three hours which was long enough considering I had to work the next day.
I have had a situation that has been frustrating me with someone I used to be close with. I have helped this person out in multiple ways, repeatedly. However it seems like it has become more and more a one way street where I am doing the reaching out, trying to be a good friend while this other person is unable to even exhibit common courtesy in return at times. It pisses me off and I am at the point where I would prefer to just eject this person from my life than deal with the lack of reciprocation. It saddens me because there was a time where I felt that this person would never act in such a manner but yet again, my naive faith in people proves to be misplaced. I simply refuse to waste my time anymore on people that don’t return the effort.
My three other Tesla purchases have been smooth with each one being even less hassle than the previous. Unfortunately that trend has reversed this time around. After purchasing the car on Tuesday and handling everything I could handle I had been on basically a two day holding pattern waiting for Tesla’s preliminary trade estimate to transform into an official trade offer. Wednesday I basically just sat still but yesterday I started getting concerned since I was scheduled to pick up the car today.
Tesla’s automated purchasing system is pretty impressive, impressive until a need comes to have contact with an actual human being that is. Multiple times during the day I tried calling in, navigating their phone menu to speak to a “Tesla advisor” only to be told none are available currently and I should call later. It was maddening.
To add to the lunacy one of the things the recorded message suggests is to respond to the text you receive when buying a car which is supposed to go straight to the delivery support people. I tried that avenue as well, repeatedly and once again got crickets in return. By the end of the day I was getting very frustrated.
Then suddenly shortly before leaving work I get a text back saying my official trade offer was in. It was $300 less than the estimate, supposedly because of some of the aftermarket stuff I have on the car. I didn’t care, I approved the offer and was eager to move onto the final steps. Instead I hit yet another roadblock.
The loan details were wrong. Instead of including the loan payoff on my current car in there the system was expecting me to pay off the loan balance in cash, for some reason. So once again I was at a hard stop and responded back via text letting them know that the loan terms were now incorrect. I am now once again waiting for a human response, a hard thing to come by in Tesla-world. I am not anticipating this preventing me from picking the car up today but damn, this process has been anything but smooth this time around.
Last night instead of playing volleyball I worked on getting my car all cleaned out and ready to be traded. As I was doing this I thought about my time with this Tesla. I picked it up the week after Cindy moved out of my house in late 2021. We were still on good terms at that time. This car was the one I bought after completing the most crazy transaction of my life with Vroom where I sold my RWD Model Y for roughly 10K more than I paid for it. The car has served me well taking me to Texas and Pennsylvania along with the day in and day out long commute from the Estates.
At the same time the car also was with me during my tumultuous 2023 where I added and removed female drivers to the car multiple times. There were many fun and frustrating moments for sure. Getting a new set of wheels will wipe yet another slate, clean.
I decided to give myself a three day weekend once again. My free PTO hours had again climbed above 200 which is normally my signal that I need to use some up. I’m still feeling a little bit in a funk so hopefully the extra time off helps me get back into some mentally clear waters.
My potential purchase of the new Model Y has been on a holding pattern the last 24 hours. I have submitted/completed everything I currently can however Tesla has still not provided the official trade in value, only the estimated value. Without this value everything else grinds to a halt. Sure I could do the deal without the trade and sell my car to a place like Carvana or Carmax but trading it knocks a nice chunk of sales tax off the top so I would prefer to go that route. This means I either wait or try to talk to a human at Tesla to get some answers which usually has a very high suck factor.
Yesterday I played pickleball both at lunch and last night with some of the people I played with last week with. The lunch session was incredibly hot, so hot that by the time 12:30 came around there was not a single game going on in the 25 courts surrounding us. The temperatures for the nighttime session were better but the humidity was oppressive, I still was soaked. One of the women I played with cracks me up. She is small and has a high pitched voice. However she is also very competitive and swears like a sailor. Every time a curse word came out of her mouth I could not help but laugh.
After play I hit Tacos and Tequila and was joined by the married couple that includes the guy I play volleyball with. I had four margaritas with my dinner but didn’t feel all that affected by it. We had a good time hanging out and shooting the shit.
My knees are feeling pretty shitty today. I am likely to skip volleyball this week because of them and because of the need to strip all the stuff out of the Tesla that I wish to keep.
