Archives July 2024

Kong, Prep, Knobs

On Friday I hit Bruninas to quickly grab a beer and dinner. It was a quick hitter because I needed to meet Ali and Shugs to pick up Elsa from her 4th of July safe haven. They agreed to meet me somewhat in the middle which was nice, saving me at least an hour overall of driving. Elsa was happy to see me but sad to leave them at the same time.

I played pickleball Saturday morning, getting in some decent play in some very hot and humid conditions. I recently put an over wrap on one of my paddles to help with grip when my hands are so sweaty. It has been the only paddle I have used since then since the others feel slippery in comparison. I clearly need to put the same over wrap on all of them.

The rest of my Saturday was pretty low key. I did do some preliminary planning regarding how to pack for California. One important thing was verifying my helmet will fit in my luggage. As you can see it does, barely. If I want to get everything in one bag I am going to need to do some careful and creative packing.

Saturday night I watched the new Godzilla and King Kong movie that is on HBO Max. It was just silly, nonsensical yet fun. Who doesn’t like watching monsters battle it out? It allowed me to disengage my brain for a couple hours and just enjoy the action. I’d give it a B.

Sunday morning I played some more pickleball with my buddy Rich. I only played 4 games in total but that was enough because of the heat and humidity. Later in the day I got motivated to take my V13 out for a ride to test the new knob style pads I 3D printed a week or so ago. I am going to need to do some more testing with the placement of them as the two spots I tried were not ideal. It seems like it’s hard to have a low mounted pad that is good for both standing and seated riding, at least for me.

The ride took me all over the place including the Cabana, an outdoor bar that I visited pretty regularly during season but have not frequented lately. I was originally planning to only drink a couple beers and roll but I wound up having more than twice that once I got rolling into a conversation with a guy named Joe who was sitting next to me.

Joe and I talked about a lot of things but the subject that consumed most of the time was our experience in relationships. He was 3 months out from breaking off a 3 year plus thing with a woman he loved but that was unwilling to do some simple things that he needed to feel happy in the relationship. I shared some of the cliff notes of my prior relationships as well. We both agreed that the most important thing a woman has to give man is respect. If that is absent everything else will fall apart. Joe appreciated our conversation so much that he bought my last Miller Lite for me. The experience at the cabana was more positive than I anticipated, so much so that it makes me want to add it back in to my regular hang outs, despite it being hot as hell. Unlike most of my trips in the past I sat directly at the bar instead of the peripheral area which I think made a difference.

In total I was out and about for somewhere around three hours, much longer than I anticipated. The video that I shot is very, very random. There is an awkward moment after I rode by Christine’s place, awkward because it seemed to me that perhaps she does not live there anymore. I evidently am far, far outside her loop nowadays. Oh well.

I spent most of the remaining hours in my Sunday getting the video edited, processed and posted. I need to really now focus on the trip the next few evenings. It’s weird, although I am looking forward to the adventure I am also looking forward to emerging from the other side of it.

Visit, A 9 Hour Tour

My 4th of July started off with a visit to the hospital to check in on my good buddy Juan. He was in there for observation and got released later in the day. I hung there for close to three hours. It was weird seeing my friend who is normally so energetic, up beat and happy, the opposite of that. I am confident he will be ok.

So I had this big 4th of July party in the afternoon. I think the last 4th of July party I have attended was at Gary’s house up in PA in the late 90’s. Yes, it’s been that long. The host rented out the clubhouse in his community which meant we had access to all of it’s amenities including a pool, hot tub, pickleball courts and more. It was a great set up.

I arrived shortly after 2PM. It didn’t take long until we were setting up a Crosscourt net (I think that is what its called). It’s a weird volleyball variation where you have a net that is shaped like a cross, giving you four small quadrants. The goal is to not have the ball drop on your square. The size of each square is very small so it requires very precise control which is not my strong point. I didn’t do great in the game but it was still a lot of fun.

They had a huge inflatable water slide there as well that was used primarily by the kids of course but most of the adults took a run or two down the slide as well. I did it twice, once feet first and then head first. Head first wound up giving me a nose full of water but the little kids that were watching approved.

I also played my first session of pool volleyball in decades. I found it to be a very tiring activity as moving through water constantly will wear you out quickly. I was hydrating with Cayman Jack the entire time which was masked by my pouring them into my water container. Despite drinking a lot of them I never felt super drunk perhaps because I was being so active most of the party. The athletic activities wound up with playing a couple games of pickleball which was fun. It was the one sport where I had a distinct advantage because of just how much I play nowadays.

The fireworks display at the end was really impressive. It went on for 20 minutes plus and was at the level of some professional displays I have seen down here. I sat on my beach chair in the parking lot and just enjoyed the show.

Afterwards I hung for a bit to help clean up from the festivities, not leaving until almost 11PM, making the party 9 hours long. I have never participated in a nine hour party in my life. It’s an idea I would not have even entertained for a very long time. I wound up being very glad I did, despite paying a sleep penalty for it.

This weekend I need to mentally and physically start getting myself organized for the trip to California. I may even resort to my good old written list to make sure all the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted.

Shorter, Live, Mini

After work yesterday I went to get a haircut in preparation for my trip next week. This was the first time ever that the Sport Clips I visit was dead. There were no other customers in there. Both of the stylists were just on their phones. I wound up having Lana cut my hair whom I have had before. She is upbeat, friendly, and bubbly. She has been single for a while as I am. We compared notes on our experiences trying to establish relationships as you get older. Neither of our outlooks were very positive. She did a nice job on my hair. I should be ready to roll for a month or so.

Last night I did a members only live stream. Something I have not done in quite awhile. I figured it could help me pass the time while I tried to finish off the bottle of wine I had opened two weekends ago. I rambled about various things. You could tell my mood was less than enthusiastic. I didn’t come close to my goal of finishing off the wine. I dumped at least half the bottle down the drain after streaming 25 minutes or so. It felt symbolic, for some reason.

I am off tomorrow for 4th of July. I am going to a 4th of July party, something I never do. It is being held at one of my volleyball buddy’s place and is evidently quite the show. There however is no way I could do this knowing Elsa would be home alone, terrified from the sound of fireworks going off. I will be driving her up to Babcock Ranch to stay with Ali and Shugs until Friday. It will be good for all parties involved.

I have been trying to get a little mini-workout in each night after work. It consists of a set of pull ups, push ups, and three different ab movements where you do each for a period of time instead of reps. It helps me maintain a base level of fitness and makes my brain feel better each time I complete it.

A lot for a Monday

My Monday evening was surprisingly busy. It started off with the two packages that were delivered. One of them was my new pickleball paddle, the Shogun. The packaging and presentation on this paddle is top notch, by the far the most impressive of any company I have dealt with. This is my second paddle from Bread and Butter, I am hoping I like it as much as the Filth, which I bought late last year.

I also received my third package from Temu, four button down short sleeve shirts, three of which I can use for work and one of them for more casual situations. I tried all of them on, they fit well and looked decent to my untrained eye. Who knows how long the shirts will hold up but since I spent a grand total of less than $40 for all of them I have little to lose. Who knows, I could be pleasantly surprised. My short sleeve shirt collection is the one remaining clothing area that could use some refreshing. I have some shirts in my closet that are approaching the two decade mark.

I then found myself motivated to go out and get some more practice in riding seated on my V13. I was surprised I was able to do it in my brief test on Sunday and wanted to build upon it. It went really well, mostly.

I went on at least a 10 mile ride and the vast majority of it was done in the seated position. I got better with keeping my speed up by putting my hands on my knees. I rode over the speed bumps on the various back streets seated as well, utilizing the front grab handle to keep my ass from flying too far off the seat. I did however have a couple incidents.

One of them was when I was slowing to get off to film a ride by with my phone. I decided I would just come to a stop while seated. Sounds easy enough right, just put your feet down. Well I started putting my feet down when I was still rolling a few mph, thinking I could just create drag to help me completely stop, that was a bad idea. An EUC will continue to want to push forward if you have any degree of forward lean, regardless of if your feet are dragging on the ground. In my case my one foot hit the ground ahead of the other one which caused the 100 pound plus wheel to quickly veer to one side, throwing me off to the ground.

At the time I thought I just banged up my ankle/shin some. When I took a shower later I felt stinging on my side. I looked in the mirror and saw I also somehow got a brush burn back there. I am wondering if that spot ran into a spinning tire. Regardless, I felt like an idiot after it happened and quickly looked around to make sure nobody was around to see it. Luckily the coast was clear.

I had another near fall later while transitioning from seated to standing. I was turning and going slow. The wheel started to wobble a bit as I was sitting and when I stood up it amplified. Suddenly I found myself wobbling severely, even though I was still going slow. The heavy V13 is not easy to control once this happens. I barely was able to recover from it but thankfully did. It shook my confidence a bit but I realized part of the problem was I transitioned to standing too slowly. The faster you sit down or stand up, the better from what I have experienced.

The cherry on top was it starting to rain. I rode the last few miles in steady rain, thoroughly soaking me in the process. The V13 is pretty water resistant so I wasn’t worried about the wheel but I arrived home soaked from head to toe. I posted some of the pictures and video I took on my phone to social media and then went to bed relatively early. It felt like a very full day.

I forgot, Head music, I can sit

On Friday after work I headed over to Brunina’s and wound up spending more time there than expected. I hadn’t seen Meaghan in a couple weeks and I was chatting with some of the other bar patrons around me so I wound up drinking more than normal, a mixture of Miller Lite and margaritas, an interesting combo. I didn’t eat because I planned to just throw in a pizza when I got home. I was definitely feeling it when I left however that did not deter me from walking around the corner and getting my grocery shopping knocked out.

When I got home I unloaded the groceries and got started on the rest of my evening however the next morning I realized something, I forgot to eat dinner. I can’t say that I recall this scenario has ever happened before. I guess the alcohol made me feel full enough or forgetful enough that hunger did not enter into the equation Friday night.

Saturday morning I met up with Sue to play some pickleball. Of course it was extremely hot and humid as is now the de facto standard for the next 4 months plus but we played well against some pretty good competition. A couple hours of play was plenty plus I did not want to push it because I was scheduled to play Sunday as well.

On Saturday afternoon I targeted getting the cheap Temu in helmet bluetooth headset working. You know the one with the ridiculous instructions that include magic, cocoa and demons. It took some trial and error but I eventually got everything more or less in place and secured. The sound quality of the headset itself is decent, now we will see how long it continues to work but for less than $20 I can’t complain about the result.

Saturday evening Sue invited me to dinner at her new place which I had never seen before. I had a very enjoyable evening with her and her husband. Their home is beautiful. I don’t do a lot of meals at other people’s homes so it was a nice change of routine.

Sunday morning I got myself out of bed to go play pickleball at Talis Park. It was another 2+ hours of playing but at least it was overcast so I melted slightly less. During the afternoon I took out my V13 for the first time. I wanted to see if I could ride it in the seated position.

Riding seated is something that is really good for longer rides. There are some riders who ride seated more often than standing, they prefer it that much. I learned to ride seated years and years ago. I used to do it on my old Gotway Monster which was a tall wheel with a high seat. I have not really ridden seated hardly at all since then. Because of my stiff and sore knees I have always found that riding seated was just too uncomfortable.

The V13 has a very tall profile. In addition the new fairing kit I installed creates a seat that is slightly higher than stock. I wanted to see how seated riding would feel on it. I was pleasantly surprised to find it comfortable and even enjoyable riding seated on the big wheel. I never rode seated much on suspension wheels either so that added to the smooth ride. I am genuinely excited to get out there and ride some more seated until I get as comfortable as I am standing on the wheel. I made a short video on the experience.

Shortly after I got home the skies opened up and I spent the rest of my night editing video and putzing around the house. I’m not sure if it was the rainy conclusion or something else but I didn’t find myself driving into the end of my weekend with a very upbeat mood.