All posts by Duf

My week in California was far too filled with events and experiences for me to regurgitate here accurately so I am not going to try to attempt to do so. I will just hit a couple highlights.

One noteworthy event was yet another crash while riding where I was going too fast on a wheel I was not yet accustomed to and ran off a bike path and down a dirt embankment. I tried to save it but after a few seconds I just bailed, landing on my left hip in a very hard manner as you can see. The resulting bruise is the largest I have ever experienced. The initial swelling was intense as well, feeling like I had a baseball sized amount of fluid in that spot. The crash happened very early in the ride so of course I had to continue, regardless of what it felt like.

I also attended Larry’s party with Dawn which was fun. Larry went out of his way, as normal, to make sure his guests had a nice time. He even bought me a special birthday cake that was over nighted from NYC. It was a crazy combo of various types of cake unlike anything I ever tried before. Larry is one of the most generous people I know.

The rest of the trip in was filled with a combo of projects, new experiences and fun. The flight home was it’s own type of experience.

I opted to do an overnight flight for my return trip. I used air miles so I was trying to conserve them if possible so the formula is the more inconvenient the flights, the less miles they cost. My flight back had two stops, Phoenix and then Dallas. The Dallas flight required me to spend the entire night night at that airport.

I had never tried to sleep at an airport and I don’t think what I did wound up qualifying as sleep. When I walked to the empty gate area of my flight that did not depart for 7 hours I saw one other person lying across the bench seating. I was curious how she was doing this as the benches have arm rests that prevent you from laying on them conventionally. I observed her technique and mimicked it. I laid on my side and bent my body in a way that snaked around the arm rests, with my body mostly balanced on the edge of the bench.

I used my travel neck pillow for head support and then laid there, trying to force myself to sleep. I was not successful. The other issue was the temperature in the terminal. It felt like it got stupid cold in there. Even after opening my luggage and putting another two shirts on top of the two I was already wearing I was cold. I felt chilled to the bone most of the night. I got on the flight at 6:30 in the morning feeling like a zombie. I tried to sleep on the flight back to Fort Myers but couldn’t manage anything substantial. The experience was memorable, like the rest of the trip. In future travels I will likely be a bit more selective in my flight plans.

When I got home yesterday morning I picked up Elsa and then used two rounds of coffee to temporarily provide me with energy to get through the day. I was so tired that I slept through my alarm this morning. I have one day of work today and Monday before the two days off for Christmas. I am already anticipating this Christmas being the most unconventional I have had in a very, very long time. My hope is next year has more of what I need. Only me, myself, and I can make that happen.

Last night I did the preliminary packing for my trip which involves me running through lists in my head. Unlike last time when temperatures were topping 100 degrees on a regular basis, this time it is much cooler with night time temps dipping into the 30s. This means I need to pack warmer clothes which equals taking up more space in luggage. I always have been bad at packing for trips and I almost always wind up over packing, wanting to be prepared for various scenarios. I think I am covered for this trip, hopefully.

Elsa has been frustrating me lately. The vet gave me the meds for incontinence that I have been breaking up and putting in her food. It seems like she somehow detects that the meds are in there, despite me mixing everything up thoroughly. The end result is she has not been eating normally. So as an experiment this morning I put no meds in her food and low and behold she licked the bowl clean. I’m not quite sure how I am going to work around this. I drop her off with Ali and Shuggs tonight.

Tomorrow I am getting up stupid early to make a 7AM flight. It’s going to be a long travel day. To help pass the time I bought a book to read. I would bet it’s been at least a couple years since I read a book so it will be good to embrace it during the long hours in the air.

I don’t anticipate posting anything until I return, no worries.

On Saturday I played pickleball as I normally do however I did not play with Sue as I normally do. She had other commitments. So instead I was a free agent and wound up playing with four or five different people but I finished up my last three or four games playing with an older guy named Dwayne. It was funny I was playing with another guy and we beat Dwayne and someone else by a pretty large margin prior to us teaming up. We made for a pretty solid team. I limited my play time to a couple hours intentionally because I didn’t want to overwork my slightly improving IT band.

During the afternoon I got out on my Master V4 for a ride. I have not been doing much EUC riding because of the sore IT band. I recorded the ride which took me to random locations. When I got home and started editing the footage I was very annoyed to find that my wireless mic audio was not working and instead all of the footage had audio that was basically useless due to wind noise. I tried to salvage it best I could by doing a voice over but it’s not the same.

On Sunday I was actually feeling good enough that I was weighing the idea of playing pickleball again but I chose no to, not wanting to push my luck. I should be happy that the pain is at least less severe, a trend I hope continues. After paying my bills I decided to do another ride, this time on my V13. This time my mic did work and I touched on some of the points from Saturday that I did not include in my voice over. The V13 is always a different sort of riding experience due to it’s large size and heavy weight but I get acclimated to it pretty quickly.

I watched the Eagles game where they barely escaped with a win at home over the Panthers whom they were heavily favored to beat. Time and again the Panthers made plays in crucial situations to stay in the game. Despite their poor record they have been competitive against very good teams in recent weeks. I guess this was continuing the trend. Regardless the Eagles now have won 10 in a row and Barkley continues to be a major reason for it. He racked up another 100+rushing yard performance and now is the record holder for much rushing yards in a season in Eagles history. Considering he did it with four games remaining in the season is impressive.

I wound up my weekend with a short for me live stream that covered 90 minutes. I was very tired and lacked the energy to go much longer. It was still fun of course.

I leave early Wednesday for a week long trip to California so I have a lot of ducks to line up before departing. That will begin in earnest tonight.

Yesterday I got word from the vet that the lab culture on Elsa’s urine sample was clear, meaning she no longer had a UTI. As far as I can tell her leaking problem has gotten better since being on the antibiotics again but it’s not like I am following her around all night checking. The vet suggested as a precaution we could try the incontinence meds which she says generally are very effective. I agreed and pick up a bottle after work. This has been the first time I ever have been able to get any use out of the pet insurance I have been carrying on Elsa for a couple years. Hopefully things can return to normal soon.

My night otherwise was mundane. I wrapped a few more Christmas presents, did a load of laundry, my mini-workout, and some 3D printing work. I had an overarching sense of tiredness which felt like a combo of mental and physical. This is becoming the new norm with me lately and it isn’t a great thing.

This weekend I have to get things in order preceding my week long trip to California which starts next week. The mental list of to do’s is getting lengthy, long enough that I probably should be documenting them at this point so nothing falls through the cracks.

I designated last night as get Christmas cards out of the way night. For as long as I can remember I have sent out cards to a small circle of friends and family. In 2024 it is becoming more and more of an antiquated ritual. You can now pay various services to send out picture cards for you to a list of addresses you provide. You do nothing other than pay the bill.

A far more common scenario in my opinion is to completely skip the idea of sending a physical card at all when an electronic text message or email is far faster and easier. With that convenience comes a lack of impact, in my opinion. Going through the admittedly tedious process of sending out cards results in more impact to the receiver. Just like most things in life the more difficult path bears the most fruit. It probably took me roughly an hour to do all the writing, stuffing, addressing and licking of envelopes.

It was downright chilly last night, as you can see in the picture I was sporting a sweatshirt in the house most of the night. It’s a pleasant change that I need to enjoy during the brief period of the year it’s a potential reality.

I also washed the last of Elsa’s dog beds last night. She is funny, whatever bed I bring out of the dryer is the one she immediately wants to lay on, probably to get her scent back onto it. Once again it appears that the meds have helped with her leaking issue as far as I have noticed. It will be interesting to see if the expensive lab work up will reveal anything else.

Yesterday was my first day back at yoga for more than a couple months. My IT band pain was a big problem early on but as the class went on it started to feel surprisingly better. Even today the pain is a lot better than it has been. My hope is the combo of the yoga and the self therapy I am doing gets me back to normal or at least as close to normal as I can be nowadays.

I have been on a dog bed washing mission at the house as they all have been subjected to Elsa’s leakage issue I am sure. In total I have five dog beds so I have been trying to wash one or two a night. Elsa was freaking out last night because I was washing her big one that I have in my office. She loves to sleep on that bed when I am working on the computer. With no bed in there she was pacing around, trying to figure out what to do. I felt bad for her.

It has been genuinely cold here, at least by Florida standards with night time temperatures dipping into the 40s. It gets less cold where I am now compared to the old house because I am closer to the water. Even so, going out back to let out Elsa in my boxers and t-shirt was a very goose bump inducing experience.

Yesterday I left work early to take Elsa back to the vet to get her rechecked since it seemed she still had the UTI symptoms after the round of antibiotics were finished. They once again ran a urine sample, this time it did not show obvious signs of an infection but the vet recommended sending the sample out to a lab for further testing to see if anything turned up. I ok’d it but found out when the bill was presented that is something like $260 alone. However when I described in more detail to the vet what was going on, where Elsa will just be laying down or sleeping and “leak” she said it could be incontinence.

That idea seemed odd to me but the vet said that dogs that have been neutered at a very young age (Elsa was) can have this happen as they get older. So depending on what the lab work shows we may shift to giving her meds that help with incontinence instead. In the meantime they gave me another 7 days of antibiotic to stomp it out if this is still a UTI. I just want her back to normal.

Last night after dinner I took Elsa for a run to Petsmart, a store I have not patronized in a very long time. I wanted to get a couple things to help address Elsa’s leaking issue, some dog wet wipes to keep her clean and some spray to break down anything that gets pee’d on accidentally. While I was there I bought her first Xmas present as well. When I got home I packed up a 3D stand order, a rarity for me nowadays.

Here are some words I thought I would never say. I am glad that the yoga class resumes today. Because of some dumb scheduling thing the yoga class that I normally would attend once a week has been dormant for between two and three months. I do not think it’s a coincidence that during this lull my IT band problem came up. The class does a lot to push my hips in directions they don’t normally go and I think the absence of that has been detrimental for me. I’m hoping starting yoga again will be another cog in my wheel of recovery. The issue is with how much my IT band is irritated, doing a lot of the movements are going to be painful and/or impossible for me currently.

I again was questioning if I wanted to do any Christmas decorations in my office this year. Much like home I decided to do so but at a bare minimum level.

Yes unconventional would be the way I would describe my 2024 Thanksgiving. As predicted I spent the majority of it working on my fence. I spent between five and six hours reinforcing 10 sections of the fence which completed the back fence line which was the worst part. I still have to do both sides which adds up to another 20+ sections but I will knock it out over the winter. I also live streamed about 45 minutes of the process, for no good reason at all.

My Thanksgiving meal consisted of half of a Wawa tuna sub and some warm ups. Yes it was minimalist, unconventional and a little bit sad but to be honest, I didn’t really care. I did absolutely nothing that would be a staple of prior Thanksgivings outside of calling my family. There was no feast, no Macy’s parade and not even any football watched.

So I seemed to try to counter balance the work heavy Thanksgiving by having a pretty lazy Black Friday. I did a decent amount of online Christmas shopping but not a whole lot else. All it takes is one day like that to make me feel like a lazy bum, not a feeling I enjoy.

On Saturday I played pickleball with Sue. We did not win a single game. Granted we played some decent teams but it still doesn’t feel good. My play and mobility continue to be impacted by my IT band related pain and I am beyond tired of it.

Unlike Friday I did try to be a bit more productive. I washed my Tesla which was beyond dirty. I cleaned up my workbench in the garage which was looking like a dumping ground. I also took Elsa to the Greenway to walk which was the first time she has ever been there. At the onset she was very nervous being plopped into a new environment but she seemed to enjoy it after a short while. I would like to take her there more often. It sucks right now because my IT band will initiate a limp after not a whole lot of walking for me.

I added on a small piece to my extravagant exterior Christmas decorations, setting my mailbox light to red to compliment the green lights on the house. Hey, it’s better than nothing.

On Sunday I got around to throwing together some various footage I had to make a half assed review of the Selkirk Labs 007 paddle I bought. This paddle is stupid expensive at $333 so the question is, is it worth that much money. My simple answer is, no.

Ever since I moved into my house I have been wanting to address an annoying issue with the circuit that controls the light by the mailbox. Evidently the photo electric cell that controls it was defective, causing the light to be on randomly during the day. Instead of fixing the source of the problem I tried addressing the symptoms by putting a smart bulb out there that I could use to keep the bulb off even if the circuit had power. For whatever reason I finally decided to address the source instead.

At Home Depot I found a replacement photo electric cell. Doing the work was not fun as getting into that corner with my painful leg/knee was very uncomfortable. I also had issues getting the new cell installed because it was physically larger than what it was replacing making it very difficult to get into the housing. I moved the wiring out of the way as much as possible and was finally able to catch threads on the screws while applying substantial force against the plate. The circuit now works perfectly. The part cost a little over $20. I’m not sure why finding the motivation to do it was so expensive.

I went to Tacos and Tequila to watch another 4:25 Eagles game, this time against the Ravens. You may recall several weeks prior I did the same thing and wound up being sick in the parking lot from margarita overload. I had one and a half margaritas this time, they didn’t even taste all that appealing, perhaps PTSD from the last time.

The Eagles had another impressive win, beating the Ravens at Baltimore. Most of the game was very close but as has been the pattern recently the Eagles pulled away later in the game. I can only hope the good times keep on rolling.

What hasn’t been a good time is Elsa’s UTI. While she was on the antibiotics it seemed to have gotten better but a couple days after ending the 7 day supply she started to have accidents around the house again. I am taking her back to the vet today to hopefully have a more extensive work up. I feel bad for her as well as bad for the things she is having accidents on. Once she is officially cured I am going to have a lot of deep cleaning to do.

Right after work I headed to Home Depot to pick up lumber for my anticipated work on the fence on Thanksgiving. I bought 10 pieces of wood that should allow me to finish upgrading the back fence line which is the longest section of it. I also bought another big box of 3 inch deck screws as I have almost exhausted my first big box. This work goes through screws quickly.

When I got home I did my mini-home workout that I try to do most weeknights if nothing else is going on. I have added some additional exercises/stretches to it that were suggested by the woman that did my sports massage. My IT band is definitely better than it was last week. I am going to keep it up and hopefully work my way back to pain free walking once again.

So as mentioned prior this will be the most unconventional Thanksgiving for me probably ever. There will be no formal meal and instead my main focus will be getting fresh wood up on the fence. Once that task is completed the rest of the day and the three days following Thanksgiving will be mine to fill however I want. I anticipate playing some pickleball as well as trying to get a sizeable chunk of my Christmas related purchasing done. I have already spent a small fortune in recent months I may as well end the year with a bang.

After getting home last night I got a message from Meaghan, my bartender friend from Bruninas. I had not been there in a few weeks so she was wondering what was up. She said it wasn’t very busy and encouraged me to come in. I had to finish up a few things around the house first but I told her I would stop over. I drove over there to have a quick dinner and had a single Miller Lite. I gave Meaghan a recap of my last several weeks as well as hearing the latest and greatest in her world. It was nice to see her and got me out of having to make my own dinner.

I brought my truck to work so I could get supplies for my Thanksgiving celebration. Instead of buying turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce I am buying 10 pieces of 2″ x 3″ lumber. My plan is to celebrate the holiday by continuing the work on my fence in the back yard. This will be the first time possibly ever that I am not spending the holiday with family and/or a significant other. To be clear I had the option to go to Texas or Pennsylvania to spend the holiday with my family but opted not to, partially because I am going to California in a couple weeks but also because I just sort of feel like being alone. This is not a woe is me sort of thing it’s just what this time of my life is. I am planning on this time next year being significantly better.

Speaking of how Thanksgiving is going to be this year, Facebook showed me an image from ten years ago of my old house filled with the various equipment and gear required to time the annual Thanksgiving race. This was always the largest race of the year and was a massive pain in the ass. It made Thanksgiving something I dreaded instead of looked forward to for almost 10 years of my life. Not doing race timing anymore is definitely one of the things I am thankful for. I have not missed doing it for a millisecond.