All posts by Duf

As mentioned previously my knees have been very painful since last week. When I got up yesterday it was the same story. My left knee was especially a problem where I would get a sudden jolt of pain doing nothing other than just taking a normal step or so it seems. Despite waking up that way I maintained my reservation to play pickleball with my lunchtime crew later in the day.

The shots of pain continued throughout the morning but I downed three Advil and headed to the courts anyway. Even as I got out of my car at the courts there I was still feeling it yet somehow, I played. I played the entire session without a significant issue which was extremely surprising to me.

Late yesterday afternoon I was invited to play again last night with my friends that I have not seen or played with in awhile. In my mind I knew that I already had pressed my luck by playing at lunch, playing for a second time would be foolish, yet I agreed. I took my second regimen of Advil and played another 90 minutes. I had some mild pain here and there but for the most part was ok. I don’t really know how I was able to play twice on the same day where I woke up with sharp pains in the joints. I’ll just attribute it to good fortune. I plan to push my luck once again tonight by playing volleyball. After play last night the four of us had dinner at Bruninas. We sat at a table instead of the bar which felt very foreign to me. Meaghan wasn’t working last night so it wasn’t a huge deal.

Yesterday my pickleball paddle from Temu finally arrived. I have spent a ton of money on paddles since I started the sport, paying as much as $330 for one. I bought this paddle as an experiment. Some people I play with have bought these paddles and have said good things about them, saying they are basically the same thing as name brand paddles without all of the markup. I paid less than $40 for the paddle. The box that it came in was as generic as generic could be. I will definitely be doing a video documenting my thoughts about this one.

Last night I made my first attempt at getting the tubeless tire centered better on the rim to get rid of the thump I am feeling at higher speed. At first I tried deflating the tire to less than 10 PSI and then just rolling around as I sat on it which proved unsuccessful. I then totally deflated the tire and massaged it by hand trying to eyeball the tire to determine if it is seated evenly. After several reinflate and test ride cycles the annoying thump was still felt. My patience reservoir had expired by that point so I shelved the task until another time. I have to get it corrected as riding the wheel when it feels this way just isn’t enjoyable.

Last night for some reason I went back and watched the Warcraft movie which came out in 2016. The movie was greatly anticipated by the millions of Warcraft nerds like me but it received pretty negative reviews. When I first saw it I recall thinking it wasn’t bad. When I went back and watched it last night I felt it was even less bad. Maybe like fine wine, it has improved with age.

Again last night I had a weird sleep sequence where I passed out sort of suddenly while watching TV in bed and then woke up with all the lights on at 11PM. This is a sequence I hope to not be repeating for long as it makes falling back asleep extremely challenging for me. My mind fires up about whatever it is concerned about at that moment and it feels like a 1000 gallon tub of water can’t put it out. I’m still going Unisom free, hoping that natural exhaustion will take over.

I did have a weird set of dreams last night that I only remember fragments of. One of them involved me quitting my job. I remember having a number of people question the wisdom of doing so as I was so close to receiving the full 30 year pension. I don’t recall why I did so or my response to the naysayers.

I have been using AI to produce summary “podcasts” of my live streams for a month or two. This last live stream was so long online transcription engines would not digest the file unless I was willing to pay a fee. I am resourceful however and eventually found a way to get the stream converted into text. I fed that text into Google’s NotebookLM and got a 20 minute recap of 330 minutes of content. The output was a bit glitchy as it repeated itself a couple times but overall AI did a decent job of interpreting what was a HUGE amount of conversation.

Last night I did another stress test on my newly tubeless Master V4 that was suggested by a channel viewer. I put the wheel up onto the tailgate of my Tacoma and then let is fall down as I guided it to the driveway 3 feet or more below, putting significant stress on the tire. The wheel/tire survived the test. Tonight I hope to be able to get the tire properly seated so I no longer feel a thump while riding.

I got a couple of my 3D printed stands assembled as well last night so I have some inventory available on my store once again. As I was assembling them an idea entered my head regarding the layout of my office. I am thinking about putting my desk in the corner opposite the door and then have workbench’s flanking it on either side. Doing this would not only look more symmetrical but also give me an opportunity to add another monitor to my set up, for a total of, gasp, three.

As I was watching Tulsa King later on I had an extreme wave of sleepiness hit me. I almost felt like I was drugged. I woke up about an hour later. Because of the timing of the nap it made it difficult for me to fall back asleep when I actually wanted to. Quality sleep is something that I no longer rely on and am instead surprised by.

I have been doing some recollecting lately of where I was in life last year at this time. It was a place of make believe where I was investing so much of myself into a situation that in reality was not worth lifting a finger for. It’s concerning to me that I allowed myself to fall into such a place. I hope to never find myself in such a state again.

We had good weather once again this weekend albeit on the windy side. The wind was a factor during my Saturday morning pickleball session causing me to make more unforced errors than I normally make. After the roughly three hour session my knees were feeling terrible. The combination of doing lower body weight training for the first time in weeks combined with returning to volleyball seemed to have really done a number on them. As I was walking I would get sudden shooting pains that would make me start limping from time to time. I took some Advil to help mask the symptoms which helped a bit.

During the afternoon I headed in the backyard with my Dewalt nailer. The hurricane and persistent winds since then had knocked loose a number of my fence boards. I used the nailer to resecure them, at least for now. In certain spots I am going to have to do additional work to shore up pieces of wood the boards nail into as they are deteriorated. Regardless it is always fun using the nailer, driving in brad nails with the push of a button is satisfying for some reason.

Saturday night I grabbed dinner at Tacos and Tequila where I had a couple house margaritas along with my food. When I got home I fired up a planned live stream. I was given authorization to give away five Pidzoom mirrors so I thought a live stream was a good way to do so.

For whatever reason I was in the mood to ramble and ramble I did. The stream was the longest I ever had, covering over five and a half hours which is borderline insane. I believe I shut things down around 2AM. I didn’t actually fall asleep until after 3:30 AM as it’s tough for me to shut my brain down immediately after something like that. Despite being up so late I got out of bed before 9AM, somehow.

I drank a combo of beer and Cayman Jack on the stream but actually did not feel as awful as I would have imagined when I got up. I had a pretty normal morning right up till it was time for the Eagles game. The Eagles put a hurting on the Giants in Saquan Barkely’s return. He ran all over them piling up 170 yards plus while the Giants could do next to nothing offensively themselves. It was a good win.

After the game I put on my gear and headed out on the Master for it’s first real ride since I had the crash. The intent was to put the tubeless tire through some stress testing since this wheel is technically not suited for a tubeless configuration. I found myself feeling a bit of trepidation on the wheel since the last time I rode it what happened, happened. There also was a small vibration that kept my speed down as I think the tire needs to be centered on the rim better.

I did do a number of drops off of curbs as well as riding down stairs at Baker Park intended to see if the tubeless tire would remain air tight. I measured my pressure before the ride and after to make this determination. I actually gained a half PSI during the ride due to the tire heating up, confirming the tubeless tire seems road worthy. Now I need to see if I can get it centered so the ride is thump free.

I spent most of what remained in my evening editing the footage. As I laid in bed last night I found my mind wandering about what is next in my path and not coming up with any clear answers. What a surprise.

I left work early yesterday to take Elsa to the vet for her annual checkup. As usual she was trembling as we waited in the room for the staff to arrive. She chilled out slightly as the exam went on once she realized nothing horrific was happening. She got a clean bill of health which I was happy to hear. I received a nice bill for that clean bill of health which always seems to be the case.

Last night I made my return to playing volleyball after roughly a month of missing it. The weather was on the cool side which I did not mind at all but it was also very windy which I did mind. Strong winds can make playing pretty frustrating.

I also got paired up AGAIN with the woman that I have mentioned in here twice before, the out, out, OUT one. Once again she struggled badly to perform some of the basic skills like passing or setting a ball. We only won a single game all night. I did my best to keep my frustration hidden behind the curtain this time but man, I really don’t want to play with this woman, ever. My play was pretty good all things considered and at least I exited the court with no significant injuries despite throwing myself all over the place as usual.

This weekend has mostly an open outlook. I am planning to live stream Saturday night, play pickleball and get some riding in on my newly repaired Master to test the new tubeless tire configuration. I’ll fill in the rest of the blanks as I feel like I suppose.

After getting home last night I did not waste much time before getting outside to pull down the hurricane shutters. I made sure to note my start time as I was curious how long removal would take after the install took roughly an hour. The answer was 25 minutes. Not only was removal easy but I now have the panels stored in order which will make installation the next time go even faster. It felt nice to have visibility out my windows once again.

The shutter removal went so quickly I had plenty of time to work on finishing up the rebuild of my Master V4. After using the parts that I received the day before to reattach the new seat I reinstalled the Clark Pad hardware to restore the wheel to it’s former glory, albeit a little more scraped up version of it.

After finishing up the reassembly I took it out for a very brief test ride to verify functionality. Everything appears to work. I need to go do some testing of the tubeless tire durability, namely doing things like dropping off curbs and going down some stairs to see how well it remains air tight.

So even though I had a very busy evening I found time to chill out on the lanai for a bit. Our first significant cool front of the fall has arrived, pushing the overnight temps into the 60’s. It felt absolutely fantastic. I look forward to spending more time in a similar manner as more enjoyable weather becomes the norm the next several months.

Tonight I am planning to make my return to playing volleyball after nearly a month off that was partially thanks to my crash. I did lower body weight training on Tuesday and my legs feel absolutely awful right now as a result. I am hoping by this evening at least some of the soreness subsides else it is going to be a long and painful night.

Last night I had a tentative plan to work more on my Master as I was supposed to be getting the remaining parts I need for the job in the mail. For whatever reason mail delivery at my place is not very consistent and the mailman did not show up until well after 7PM so I scrapped the idea. It may be part two of tonight’s plan.

Part one tonight is going to be removing the hurricane shutters from the windows. The storm that was potentially predicted for our area looks like a false alarm and I am tiring of having limited visibility outside. It took be about an hour to put them up. I am hoping I can take them down in half of that time. In the process of doing so I will be able to organize the storage of the shutters sequentially which will make installation the next time smoother instead of the piece meal process I went through this time.

Today is my sister Torrin’s 50th birthday. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the idea of her being 50, adding to my already bountiful paranoia about getting older than dirt. I know she is not a big fan of the idea either.

I had a busy weekend after my two day work week thanks to Hurricane Milton. Saturday after playing pickleball I worked on various tasks around the house during the afternoon. Later in the afternoon I got a call from my buddy Jason who I have ridden wheels with a number of times . He told me surprisingly that he has lost interest in riding. He lost it so much that he asked me if I wanted to buy his two wheels.

I was very surprised by this and tried repeatedly to talk him out of it, sharing stories of how I have had my interest come and go over time but I always come back to it. He had already made up his mind however. He didn’t want to even deal with the hassle of selling the wheels himself. His thought was to sell them to me cheap enough that I could turn around and sell them for a small profit that I could put towards future wheel purchases.

The last thing I really needed was two more wheels but I agreed to do it both to help him out and to hopefully generate a few extra bucks, it won’t be a windfall by any means. I made arrangements to meet him somewhat halfway between Naples and Cape Coral where we did the exchange. It was a situation I absolutely did not expect. On Sunday I rode the wheel and did a video describing what went down.

On Saturday I decided to go to Carrabas to visit Helen, it was nice to catch up with her.

Besides riding on Sunday and doing the associated video editing I watched the Eagles/ Browns game. The Browns are statistically one of the worst teams in the league but stayed in the game the entire way, remaining tied into the fourth quarter. The Birds squeaked out a 20-16 win but I was finding it very difficult to be motivated to watch the team. It’s just not fun. After the game I went to Tacos and Tequila to eat dinner and get a little drunk on four margaritas.

I went to one of our remote offices both Saturday and Sunday to revert a work around we did on Friday for a power problem. The power issues were supposed to be fixed both of those days, it wasn’t. I was less than pleased.

I told Larry I was going to write something regarding breaking traditions in relation to a situation he is mulling over. I have always been a person that is yearning for routine as well as participating in traditions. With Halloween being roughly two weeks away it got me thinking about traditions once again and specifically how I have been letting a lot of them fade away.

For a long time I would decorate for Halloween. I would have various inflatables in the yard along with other decorations both in and outdoors. I thought it was fun and thought others enjoyed my efforts like Cindy, her daughter and later baby DJ. However this year you are seeing the extent of my Halloween decorations, I changed the LEDS by the garage to orange, done. Christmas may also see a drastic yet similar shift in the amount of f’s I give about maintaining those traditions.

In a nutshell, to me, if a tradition is no longer serving you or has become more hassle than it’s worth, it’s not a tradition I am interested in entertaining any further. As I mentioned this also has applied to my various routines that for so long seemed like they were made out of stone. Instead I realized they are simply made of sand that can be brushed away and reshaped in any manner I so choose. Is there an element of sadness from walking away from things you traditionally have done? Yes, at least for me there is. However I have been continuing focus on what I want to do as opposed to things I feel obligated to do for reasons that just don’t matter that much anymore. That’s my two cents and it might be worth less than that.

I awoke Thursday morning to a yard filled with oak tree debris. The wind from Milton knocked down a ton of smaller branches, leaving them both in the yard and in the gutters. The stuff in the yard I could leave for my lawn guy to take care of but I did pull my ladder out. I went around the perimeter of the roof line pulling out any branches that could become a source of future gutter clogs. I opened up the rear lanai accordion shutters and rolled up the the front door protection. I decided to leave the window protection up for now. There is a potential tropical system that could impact us next week so until I know how viable that is I will just live with a darker house for now.

During the morning I also drove Meaghan to go get her vehicle which she moved out to Golden Gate for the storm. She lives right by the water and saw appreciable storm surge of several feet. My Tacoma got a bit of a muck bath driving through the sloppier sections near the gulf. It was a good thing she moved her vehicle as it would have seen significant water damage otherwise.

I was hoping to grab my first Dunkin Donuts coffee in a few days on the way there but my location was still closed. There was a bunch of things still closed because despite avoiding a direct hit there were a number of places without power. I was just lucky to not be one of them.

During the afternoon I did my first ride since my accident, sort of a big deal. I took out my Veteran Patton and rolled around with only a loose idea of where I was going. I didn’t feel fearful of doing so but it did feel weird in a way to be back on an EUC after what had happened. Despite this I enjoyed myself on the ride which I think was reflected in the video I made. One of the changes I vowed to implement was checking my tire pressure before every ride. I was surprised that after doing so on the Patton that I discovered I was actually 10PSI low. It’s a good change.

The rest of my evening consisted of video editing and binge watching Tulsa King, I like the show. Last night I slept poorly as the power was clicking on and off routinely throughout the night. Every time it happens the various tech in my house has a reaction that is nearly impossible to sleep through, at least for me.

I have the second day of my two day work week to get through before the weekend. What this weekend will hold is still pretty much a wildcard.

Monday afternoon the word came down that our office was going to be closed due to Milton from Tuesday through Thursday. We followed the lead of the rest of the county offices. Monday night I grabbed dinner at Bruninas and found the place packed, apparently incoming hurricanes make people want to go out to eat.

It felt weird waking up Tuesday with no alarm. It rained hard for most of the morning. Our area has been drenched by rain since Sunday. Not a great thing with a hurricane incoming.

I noticed water cascading out of my gutters on the back of the house meaning the downspouts were clogged, again. I ran to Walmart to get a real raincoat and then got up on my ladder to clear them out. It was a pretty quick task and the standing water in the gutters emptied out quickly once cleared.

During the afternoon the rain slowed so I decided to put up my hurricane shutters I bought last year. Even though the winds in our area are not supposed to cross 50MPH I thought I would put them up for the practice. Even with shooting video it only took me a little over an hour to enclose the house. The installers evidently messed up marking some of the panels which I had to sort out on the fly. The end result was the house being totally secure. This was so much easier than lugging huge and heavy plywood from the shed at the old house.

Last night I went to Bruninas for the second night in a row, it was one of the few places open. I stayed in bed until 8:30 this morning a rare oddity.

My plan for today is to do some little things to prep for a possible loss of power but other than that I will just be chilling. I might take it as an opportunity to complete the repair on my Master and film a sponsored video. I’m about to head out to hopefully secure my first DD of the day. Thank you to anyone who has reached out wishing me well during the storm’s approach. I appreciate each and every one of you.