I took a picture of the new solar lights I bought from Costco. I told you they were cool.
Last night after work I had a number of packages to open that arrived. Two of them were used in two “how to” videos I shot later.
One item was a fresh set of batteries for one of my Neatos. Installing batteries in a Neato is a pretty simple and straightforward process hardly needing an instructional video. Regardless, I saw it as an opportunity to suck dollars into my AdSense empire so I recorded it.
The other item I bought was a special adapter to allow me to balance the props on my DJI Phantom. The props on the new Phanton have an integrated hub which allow for very easy prop installation. Unfortunately their design also makes them not fit on my Dubro prop balancer. The lack of a center hole is the issue.
The adapter screws into the prop, eliminating the problem. Balancing a prop is a pretty simple procedure. After mounting it on the balancer you turn the prop so it is sideways. If it is balanced it will hang in that position. If it is not it will fall to whichever side is slightly heavy.
You then take some fine grit sandpaper and sand the back of the heavy side, removing small amounts of material. You check balance and repeat the process until you can get the prop to hang.
The reason it is good to balance your props is because of vibration. The less balance, the more vibration. When you are using an aircraft to do stuff like shoot aerial video you want as little vibration as possible.
After balancing all four props I threw my GoPro on the copter and shot some test video. To be honest I couldn’t really tell a difference although it was quite breezy outside, making stable flight tough anyway. More rigid carbon fiber props are another recommendation to get the shakes out. I may grab a set of them as well to test them out. Here is the prop balance video.
GAME OF THRONES SPOILER ALERT
Last night Cindy and I watched the most recent episode of Game of Thrones. It was quite shocking, unexpected, yet very, very satisfying. That little, annoying, evil, smarmy kid king died of poisoning. Even though there are tons of hate-able characters on the show, Geoffrey was easily on the top of my “must die” list. His actions from day one have been nothing but despicable. The actor that portrays him deserves kudos for doing such a good job playing such a bad role.
Cindy took this picture of the blackberries that are starting to come in. The bush is located in the orchard which is in dire need of an overhaul. There are 2 or 3 trees I should just rip out of the orchard since they either are not bearing fruit, look hideous or both. I have been shying away from the large expenditure of physical labor it is going to take to make it happen. It would be cool to replace those trees with some new ones that I could try to do a better job of maintaining.
The landscaped area around the pool cage is looking quite ragged and piece meal as well. Whatever plan I originally had for the plant layout around the pool was obliterated by frost damage and irregular pruning efforts. It just looks unkempt.
Finally the pond area could use some TLC. The liner is dried out and brittle and the wooden border that surrounds it is falling apart and looks like shit. The pumps I have in the pond need to be replaced as well. The trick there is pulling off the renovation without murdering the aquatic life that manages to survive in the small body of water.
Speaking of aquatic life, I have confirmed that at least 4 of the 11 or 12 goldfish that I scooped up from the foreclosed house down the street are still alive and kicking. They like to stay real low in the water when I am around so unless I sneak up on them, it’s hard to get an accurate head count.
This weekend will be the last of a month long project which will once again require me putting in hours at a branch office on Saturday. Unfortunately it is also the same weekend as one of our larger races of the year which I have to time first thing. Also unfortunate is Cindy and I hope to go see Captain America Saturday night. Since my day will probably start around 3:45 AM I am going to need to find some way to catch a nap or rely heavily on a 5 hour energy to prop me up.
I will be quite glad to have my weekends free and clear once again.
My neighbor across the street had his pool cage re-screened a year or so ago. I asked for the guys name that did it since he was reasonably priced and did a good job. The installer stopped by shortly after I got home from work. The estimate number he gave me was more than what the neighbor paid but my pool cage is a lot bigger so I expected that. It was still reasonable.
I was surprised when he said he could actually get to work later this afternoon. The guy does the work with his son. Today they are supposed to be removing all the old screening and pressure washing the cage frame. Tomorrow they will be installing the new screening. I like that he includes a 10 year warranty on his panels considering the original screening started ripping a couple years after installation.
As the guy and his son walked the cage they were commenting on the installation of the existing screen, some of which was original, some of which I had replaced. They were pointing out how some panels weren’t done very well, probably the ones I replaced. Of course I didn’t feel the need to fess up to it. The work will consume the majority of my tax refund but it’s something that needs to get done. Much like painting the exterior of the house, it’s a job that I think I am better off paying someone else to do and to do it right.
Yesterday Cindy was nice enough to stop by my mom’s place to pick up her fake Xmas tree for storage in one of my sheds. She also grabbed mom’s tax paperwork so I could do her income taxes.
I decided to not waste time and did the taxes online last night using TurboTax just as I have for the last several years. In less then a half hour I was done, with mom getting a refund similar to last year’s amount. On the plus side mom made more money this year.
I was surprised to see my Google ad revenue that goes directly to mom totaled up to more than $700 for the year. In 2014 I am pretty sure the ad dollars for the year will easily break 4 digits. When you combine the slight bump in income with the huge chunk of money mom has been saving since giving up cigarettes in early January, for the first time in a long time mom has a little more room to breathe financially.
Well unfortunately I was unable to do entries as the road trip progressed like I did for the Grand Canyon trip. As a result, prepare for one massive brain dump, a full extra large coffee’s worth and maybe even a half cup refill after that.
Thursday night the van was loaded with as much as possible to facilitate a very early 4:30 am departure Friday morning. The plan was to get the majority of the driving out of the way Thursday which would allow us to stop and see my sister en route Saturday and still get to my dad’s in time for dinner.
Despite some dire predictions regarding driving conditions, the roads were totally fine. Sure there were visual reminders of the storms that week like a ton of downed branches from the ice storms that hit Carolina, but by the time we passed, the roads themselves were 100% fine.
Driving went well with Cindy and I switching off behind the wheel. Cindy got to see her first snow as we hit North Carolina which was very exciting for her since growing up in South Florida she had NEVER experienced snow.
We wound up stopping in Emporia, Maryland, just past the border with North Carolina. We logged a MASSIVE 930 miles for the day. For dinner we ordered pizza from a place recommended by the front desk of the Holiday Inn Express we were staying.
The hotel room was clean and comfortable. Sadie wasted no time making herself comfy on one of the two full size beds. Cindy and I decided for the sake of restful sleep we would each claim our own bed. Of course Sadie bunked with me as well.
Since we put in so many miles Friday we could afford to leave at a more reasonable time of day Saturday. We even had time to indulge in the free continental breakfast. While I was sitting there I immediately noticed the woman that was tending to the breakfast spread. She greeted me and repeatedly asked me if I needed anything else and if I liked the food. I am not used to the staff tending complimentary breakfasts being pleasant. She was so pleasant I actually walked to the room and back to the breakfast area with a few dollars in hand to tip her. She was like a breath of fresh air.
The t-shirt and shorts that I wore for the drive Friday was no longer appropriate as temperatures in Maryland were much, much colder, as in below freezing. Saturdays travel attire included jeans, a long sleeve t-shirt and my fleece winter coat. We hit the road around 6:30 to push towards my sister and brother-in-laws place in State College.
The driving on Saturday definitely was more challenging. I did all of the driving since Cindy had no winter driving experience. We drove through some steady snow throughout the day, even hard snow at times but for the most part it wasn’t really sticking to the roads. We had lunch in Hancock, Maryland where Cindy got the full winter experience. It was freezing, windy, snowing and the ground looked to have at least a half foot of snow covering it. In her typical way, she ignored the obvious discomfort caused by these conditions and instead was excited to finally be experiencing “real” winter conditions. Sadie seemed very happy to be back in snow, leading Cindy on a very long walk around the gas station while I filled up.
So we pulled into Damon and Torrin’s place between 2 and 2:30. I knew it had snowed there again on Friday but I didn’t quite expect there to be quite that much snow. Their street was snow covered and quite slick at spots. I proceeded quite slowly with the van as once it starts to slide it does not want to stop until it hits something bigger than itself.
The sidewalks were outlined by a couple foot high snow walls at various spots. Seeing them instantly made me very glad that I no longer have to be the one that digs those canyons out.
We were greeted enthusiastically by everyone. When I had stopped by last year on my winter roadtrip they were still in the middle of completing MASSIVE renovations on the house that were done almost exclusively by Damon. Those renovations were now done so the place looked much different than I last saw it. Damon showed me some pictures of what things looked like when they bought it. The transformation is HGTV worthy. It looks like a totally different space on the inside.
It didn’t take all that long until we headed into the back yard to play in the snow with the kids. Damon had created a makeshift luge track by running a sled down the deep snow a few times. We took turns going down the track, it was fun especially for Cindy since she never sledded in real snow before. Sadie LOVED the track as well, sprinting up and down the hill repeatedly. It was very funny.
In addition to the track, Damon had a huge swing set up in the back yard. The swing was attached via 70 foot long ropes to a tree branch far overhead. Both Cindy and I took turns on the swing. The long ropes meant the swing arc was quite large. As I swung back and forth Sadie would try to chase me at the low points.
As I mentioned, it was quite cold out. The zipper on my coat was being problematic and I gave Cindy my gloves so it didn’t take long for my extremities to get quite cold. I was amazed that Damon spent most of the time in the yard with just a t-shirt on. Emily and Griffin ironically warmed up to us more in the frigid temps, taking turns throwing snowballs at me. Emily even asked me to help her collect some branches for some wood structure she was erecting.
After spending a good chunk of time outside we headed back in to warm up a bit before we had to shove out for Marienville. It was great seeing everyone again. It was the first time I saw Torrin and the kids since last year and the first time I saw Damon since the Ireland trip something like 2.5 years ago.
Originally I hoped to get back on the road early enough to avoid nighttime driving on the narrow and potentially treacherous roads as you get closer to Marienville. Last year I had vivid memories of white knuckle driving as logging truck after logging truck hurdled at me with minimal clearance at high rates of speed. Unfortunately we pulled out of State College later than I planned but spending more time with Torrin’s family was a good trade off.
It turned out to be a non-issue anyway, for whatever reason the logging trucks were not active on a Saturday night. The drive to dad’s was uneventful until I got to the road he lives on which appeared to have had minimal plowing done to it. I slid past the driveway on my first attempt to enter it. We arrived right around 7PM.
It didn’t take long before we had a dog greeting party that included Maggie, Clara, and their newest canine addition, Charlie. Charlie was found by my dad wondering the roads a few months ago. He was in poor health, dad suspects he may have been owned by some Amish people, that are generally not known for giving a fck about their animals.
Charlie was a bit freaked out by the new visitors but it didn’t take long until he realized we were on the good guys team. All 4 of the dogs were scurrying about the property in no time. In addition to my dad and Teresa being there, Patrick, one of my brothers had driven up from Pittsburgh to hang with us, which was awesome.
This was the first time Cindy had met any of the other half of my parenting duo. She had no problem fitting right in. I had told her ahead of time that she has a lot of the same tendencies as my step mom Teresa who is a very hard worker that loves to cook and get things done. Teresa and Cindy seemed to hit it off almost immediately.
Teresa had our dinner on a holding pattern waiting for our arrival. It was a delicious meal that started out with soup, followed by vegetable pie and concluded with a chocolate on chocolate cake that was incredibly moist.
We got to see the culmination of dad’s retirement dream as well Saturday night, his churro sheep and llama. Sometime during my dad’s time living in New Mexico he got the idea in his head that he wanted to raise sheep. He associated raising sheep as being that itch that he never quite has been able to scratch since retiring.
When I first heard of his intentions I was not very supportive as I looked at the workload of raising/maintaining farm animals versus the constantly declining physical condition dad has been experiencing the last decade. To me it seemed like he should be having retirement dreams that involved less physical labor, not more. I also knew that my step mom, as she often does, would wind up picking up much of the responsibilities for the animals whether she wants to or not.
Well the first impression when I saw the sheep in the barn was, wow, that is a lot of sheep. Including two recently born lambs, they now had 12 sheep and a llama. It looked like the space allocated was fully utilized with little room to spare. Teresa told me that she believedone or two more of the sheep had been impregnated by the one non-castrated ram in the group, named Blackhawk. For some strange reason dad did not see any urgency in getting Blackhawk sterilized when he got the sheep several months ago, despite the limited sheep housing arrangements.
I also got to meet their llama, named Dhali Llama. A llama acts like the protector for sheep, willing to take on any and all threats to the flock. The llama was very funny as he stared us down while gnawing on hay. The other thing that you notice right away about sheep in a barn is the smell which is pretty awful. It quickly will permeate any items of clothing you are wearing and your hair. It is not a scent you will be looking for in a perfume bottle.
We had a very nice evening Saturday night just catching up with everyone as we sat in front of the wood burning stove. Dad got a new stove since I was last there. This one is designed to burn wood and does a nice job of doing so, supplying the majority of the heat for the main living area during waking hours.
I already warned Cindy that the guest bedroom gets very cold by Florida standards at night. To try to moderate the temperature we slept with the bedroom door open but even with doing so, any body part that was not under covers became very chilly very quickly. When I awoke Sunday morning the remote thermometer was showing an outdoor temperature of 3 degrees, ouch.
On Sunday morning dad took all of us to the Gateway Lodge for breakfast, a place I had gone to before for dinner last year. It is a beautiful ski lodge style building without the skiing. We all enjoyed nice meals and took some time to just walk around inside to take in the beautiful interior.
A nice lady took Cindy and my picture inside the billiards room which featured one of the coolest looking pool tables I ever saw. On the way back from the lodge we stopped at the local convenience store. While we were there I had to laugh at the snowmobile, a viable form of transportation during Marienville winters, that was pulled up to the gas pumps.
Late in the morning we decided to give sledding a try on the huge hill dad has towards the back of the property. I put on 4 or 5 layers to prepare for the icy air which was hovering in the low double digit area. Even so I felt quite frozen in short order, especially since the wind was starting to pick up in advance of the light snow that was falling.
The hill had not been used since the most recent dumping of heavy snow within a week so Patrick and I had to do a few slow runs to try to make a path for the sleds to follow in the 12-18 inches of snow that was on the ground. It took exactly one run to the bottom of the hill before I knew that the number of trips I would make down the hill would probably not take more than one hand to count. You see the hike back up to the top of the hill was BRUTAL. The hill was long, steep and covered in snow that was mid-shin high or higher at spots. To make things more fun, the air and wind made it feel like you were sitting in a freezer with a fan blowing on you. A single trip to the top had me sucking major wind.
Cindy, who is all about physical challenges actually had to tap out after 2-3 sledding runs. The cold air was triggering her asthma, making it very tough to breathe. Sadie also fell victim to the conditions.
At first Sadie was sprinting up and down the hill, the best she could with snow that was belly high. She was having a ton of fun. There was a hilarious moment where she had her front legs stationary on the back of the toboggan Cindy was riding while running with her back legs. It looked like she was pushing Cindy down the hill.
I actually got Sadie in the front of one of the sleds and held onto her as we did a complete run all the way down to the bottom. It was cute.
Well I could tell Sadie was exhausted and cold after awhile, despite her love of the snow. She also acted like she pulled something in one of her legs as she really didn’t want to walk. I wound up carrying her about halfway back to the house before setting her down to let her walk the rest of the way. Cindy who had already had enough went inside with Sadie to warm both of them up.
Patrick, Teresa and I stayed out for a little while more. I looked at the trudging back up the hill as a physical challenge. I refused to stop mid-hill, even opting to do one of the climbs in totally virgin snow to add to the effort level. Even Patrick, whom I consider to be ultra-fit, was struggling with the climb so I didn’t feel as bad as I gasped the 15 degree air. We headed in to eat lunch, a very tasty grilled cheese variety prepared by a Cindy/Teresa tag team.
Later in the afternoon I took the Phantom out for it’s first ever winter mission. I had been waiting for a break in the weather as it was snowing most of the day. The best conditions I could get was some light flurries, I hoped they would not impede the flying ability of the quad. The bad weather conditions really came through in the video as everything looked different shades of gray. When you see the video I did on the next day which was sunny, the difference is startling.
Flying in the cold was a bit different other than the obvious cold hands problem. The cold air seemed to be a bit tougher for the Phantom to navigate and cut into battery life. Dad and Teresa really liked the footage I captured, showing their property in a way neither of them had seen before.
Unfortunately Patrick had to head home Sunday evening since he worked Monday. It was great to see him. We talked of doing a team tri event sometime in the future where Pat would run, Cindy would bike and I would swim. We would kick some major ass.
Sunday night Teresa, dad, Cindy and I played some Scrabble, a game I am pretty sure I never played in the old table top format. I wound up stealing defeat from the jaws of victory when I got caught with a Q in my hand when Cindy ended the game by emptying her tiles. Shucks.
Early on Monday there was surprising news, Teresa said one of the sheep had just given birth to TWIN lambs. We all headed out to see them, they were both black and both surprisingly capable for just being brought into the world a few hours prior. Teresa said that you had to make sure the babies feed from the mother shortly after birth which initially both of them seemed to have problems doing. Thankfully they eventually figured it out.
Sheep don’t make it easy for their babies to eat. They don’t lay down to allow babies to feed. Instead they stand up with their bellies hanging very low to the ground. The lambs have to wedge themselves under the mothers awkwardly to get anything. It looked very uncomfortable. So just like that, dad’s already large sheep count had jumped up to 14. There was sheep shuffling that had to be done so the mother and babies could be in a small isolation pen. I also found out what a sheep placenta looks like and that the mother will often eat the placenta. I would have been totally fine not seeing or knowing either thing.
During the day I made another aforementioned aerial sortie with the Phantom, going through two battery packs this time. The bright sunshine made for much better picture quality.
Three of the four dogs were all limping at one time or another on Monday. Sadie appeared to have some residual effects from running the sledding hill and would just pull up lame randomly if she tried to run too hard. Clara, who recently had dog ACL surgery would run like a maniac and then be walking on 3 legs shortly afterward. Charlie had something going on with his front paw that was causing him pain so he was gimpy as well. Maggie was the only dog that appeared to be pain free.
On Monday Cindy made most of lunch and dinner since Teresa was busy trying to tend to the two new lambs. Both meals were great. Teresa was definitely grateful for the assist.
So Monday evening I was tired and dirty. I had hopped in the bathroom to take a well needed shower. As I am in there Cindy comes to the door and tells me ANOTHER sheep just had TWIN lambs. You have to be kidding me. This time it was a white and black lamb. We now had a space problem. There were no available isolation pens. We had to somehow come up with a way to split the existing pens.
The first thing that had to be done was to get the other sheep outside and out of the way. Moving the sheep around wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for Blackhawk, the only ram that still has it’s balls. He is aggressive. Dad and Teresa had described his behavior, specifically how he will try to ram you. I got to experience this first hand on Monday.
As I was assisting in getting the sheep outside I found myself about 10 feet from Blackhawk. Well he immediately drops his head and runs at me. I caught his horns and grabbed them, stopping his momentum and then pushed him backwards with force, hoping it would convey the message he shouldn’t fck around with me. Well instead it seemed to just piss him off as he charged me again and again. Although I am strong enough to stop him dead in his tracks, after 7 or 8 such efforts I was getting tired of it. I side stepped one of his charges and then kept a tree between the two of us which finally put an end to his ramming attempts.
So anyway after some scrambling we used a a piece of metal fencing to temporarily split one of the stalls at a 45 degree angle using a combination of brackets and bungee cords to attach it. It was during this process where I got up close and personal with sheep shit as I was on my knees driving in screws to attach the fence section.
Once the temporary divider was in place, getting the correct sheep where they belonged was very difficult. Certain sheep were freaking out as they didn’t want to be split up. Sheep are very attached to their flock and even more so to their mothers. I found out that trying to physically restrain a panicked sheep is not for sissies.
There was another complication with this newest set of twins. The mother appeared to be rejecting the white one. Every time it would try to get under her to feed the mother would knock it away with her head. Teresa was very worried and got out her sheep how-to manual for guidance. It indicated it was very important for the babies to feed shortly after birth. Since the mother wanted nothing to do with the white one Teresa wound up bottle feeding the poor little thing.
Both Cindy and Teresa tried a number of tricks listed in the book to get the mother to accept the white lamb which included some pretty disgusting activities like rubbing placenta on the lamb and other fluids so the scent was right. None of it seemed to work.
Cindy was not afraid to jump right in and get her hands and everything else dirty. She took turns feeding the baby, staying put even when the lamb took a leak on Cindy’s leg. Cindy got to add lamb feeding to her list of firsts on the trip.
So originally before lamb twin set number two were born, we had made loose plans to go to the movies on Tuesday, our last full day in Marienville. Well the modifications that we did to the isolation pens were not going to be very workable long term. I told dad that he should utilize my being there, I would be fine helping him build a real wall to divide the pens on Tuesday.
He felt bad that our vacation had morphed into something so sheep-centric but I told him neither Cindy or I cared. With dad’s physical condition it made sense for me to help him to make the job easier. After taking my second shower of the day, I collapsed in bed.
We awoke Tuesday morning to another half foot of snow on the ground, awesome. I tended the fire, a role I sort of absorbed as the days passed. There is something satisfying with starting a successful fire.
Dad and I headed out relatively early to get the supplies we would need for the construction work. The first stop was at an Amish woodmill for 10 foot long 1″ x 6″‘s. I found the place fascinating as I walked into the office of the mill that was stationed with one of the sons. He seemed somewhat surprised to have someone pull up on such a snowy morning.
The kid, who was maybe 15-17 was classic Amish in appearance, not a speck of facial hair, big brimmed hat, and hair that looked remarkably like steel wool. I found the method used to run a woodmill interesting as well since the Amish do not utilize electricity. All of the saws, planars, and sanders were driven from a centralized pulley drive that ran the length of the floor. The system was powered by a diesel motor in an adjacent outbuilding. I guess they simply connected and disconnected pulleys as needed. This 100 year old way of doing things struck me as very cool. Another one of the sons came out to help us load the 10 boards into the back of the truck. The cost, $3 a board, made me do a double take.
The next stop was the hardware store to get fasteners, hinges and a 4×4 that would be used for the project. I drove dads Tundra to the back of the store to throw the 4×4 in. He said I should just stay behind the wheel when I came back around the front. The 4×4 Tundra feels like a tank compared to my Tacoma. Despite the snow covered roads it felt very sure footed. I have considered replacing my Tacoma with a Tundra when the time comes. After a stop at the gas station we returned to the house ready to go.
Construction of the wall and new gate took place both indoors and outdoors. Dad’s mitre saw rig was located in the adjacent open air storage area. Although the two walls protected you from precipitation and some wind, it wasn’t exactly warm and cozy. Building the wall required discarding any aversion to animal waste as we were working in the middle of sheep fecal central. I simply didn’t think about it and did almost all of breathing exclusively though my mouth to minimize smell issues.
We got the front wall split/re-constructed and the new divider wall in place before lunch and then knocked out the gate afterwards. As we were working Cindy and Teresa were taking turns tending to and formulating plans on how to care for Snowflake (initially named Tessa) since her mother continued to reject her. The good news was at least the lamb was taking to bottle feeding pretty well. When the baby was asleep on Teresa’s lap it looked so peaceful.
Finally we finished up and distributed the now sixteen sheep accordingly. The space in the barn is now totally filled. The bad news is there could be other ewes that are pregnant. Yea dad, not getting Blackhawk fixed right away, not a great idea…
After construction there was another task to be done, plowing the driveway. I told dad I would do it but I needed a brief refresher on the operation of his big Cub Cadet tractor which has both a front bucket and rear plowing blade. I was a bit hesitant doing so as I recalled my frustration the last time dad had me on the tractor doing the same job. He got annoyed with me because I was not plowing in the way he liked, probably because I never used a tractor to plow snow before.
Well this time around he left me alone for a good portion of the plowing experience which was good. However when it came time to clear the area right in front of the garage doors he assumed the project manager role, directing me to clear the snow in a way that I was not going to, claiming my way would not work. Dad stood there directing me with frustrated hand signals which only served to frustrate me more. I was thoroughly frozen at this point so I was really not appreciating the additional direction.
Then when I finally thought I was done, and anxious to thaw out my feet and hands, dad wants me to use the tractor to clear snow around one of the gates so it is able to open more freely. Well doing so required maneuvering the tractor in tight quarters with little room for error. Dad went even heavier into his hand signals that were inaccurate because he was facing me, meaning the direction I needed to go at times was actually the reverse of what he was gesturing. I just bit my lip and continued to scoop and dump snow until dad was satisfied with the radius the gate opened.
Much like the last time I sat on the tractor, I found it much more frustrating than fun. It was like sitting in the seat of a time machine that took me back to my childhood. Dad has many skills, being good at directing someone without losing patience is not one of them. I parked the tractor, determined the next time I offer to plow dad’s driveway it will come with the requirement that he remains inside by the fireplace sipping a cup of coffee. I will manage just fine on my own, I always do, lol.
Well Tuesday flew by as you would expect since there was so much going on. Even so dad wanted us to do something fun. He had been talking about going to The Kelly, a local bar to play team longboard. (tabletop shuffleboard) Cindy and he had been doing some good natured trash talking about it. Cindy is always happy for some sort of competitive event.
The bar was sparsely patronized, when we walked in there were two people at the bar and the bartender, that’s it. We had a lot of fun drinking beers, playing longboard and eating a bar food dinner which wasn’t too bad. The longboard teams were my dad and I against Teresa and Cindy. We wound up each winning one game which worked out well. The rubber match could wait until our next trip north.
Tuesday evening we had to pack up for our planned early departure Wednesday morning. We found some time to chill out by the warm fire, the feelings of sadness about the trip coming to an end started to set in a little bit.
During our time there I got close to Charlie, dad’s new dog. Charlie is relegated to living in the heated garage since he appeared to never have been house broken. He had this weird thing where sometimes when you would go in the garage, especially if the other dogs weren’t with you, he would bark and take an aggressive approach to you. He did it to Cindy once and it scared her enough that she started going in the front door instead.
When he would do it to me I would put my arms out wide and say “Charlie, it’s me!”, within two seconds his tail would be wagging and we were best buddies again. He’s a good boy. He loved playing with the other three dogs.
During our time there Cindy and Teresa really hit it off like I mentioned earlier which I was glad to see. She seemed to fit right into the Marienville environment, despite it being as foreign as foreign can be compared to what she is used to. Dad and Cindy seemed to enjoy each other’s company as well.
So my alarm went off Wednesday morning at 5am for our planned 6am departure. It was the warmest morning of the trip (figures) with temps in the mid 30’s. It also happened to be raining. I had heard on the news about the potential for icy conditions but I figured it couldn’t be so bad. We loaded up the van and after one last goodbye to the sheep, the dogs, Dad and Teresa we shoved off for home. The trip felt shorter than it was because we were so unexpectedly busy with the birth of 4 sheep in 24 hours.
As soon as I pulled onto Gilfoyle Road I felt my grip tighten on the steering wheel and my blood pressure rise. The roads were icy, REALLY slippery. As I approached the first intersection and turned onto 899 it was even worse. The road looked ok, practically devoid of snow, however it was covered in ice. Despite pulling out at a snail’s pace the van was losing traction. I was genuinely worried and expressed it to Cindy which worried her even more. I assured her we would be ok, even if I wasn’t quite so sure of it myself.
I kept the van in second gear so the engine could assist in braking as any sudden acceleration or deceleration was asking for trouble. There were portions of open road where I was rolling around 25-30 mph and I could feel the rear wheels break free, it was downright dangerous. Despite my difficulty, I pressed on slowly. I started seeing oncoming vehicles flashing their headlights at me. I was unsure of their intent but I knew it couldn’t be good.
We came upon a line of stopped vehicles that appeared to be at the crest of a small hill. I assumed that somebody wiped out and was not surprised that they would. While we we were stopped I got out to take a look under the hood. There was a noise that sounded like a water pump bearing going bad that only started since arriving in cold PA. (Luckily since entering warmer climates the noise went away)
Anyway when I stepped on the road I could not believe how slippery it was. It would be tough to walk on safely, trying to drive on it seemed like lunacy. We sat there for a long time, probably close an hour. During that time a firetruck approached and then backed off, probably not wanting to get stuck itself.
After awhile a snow plow came from the opposite direction spreading much needed road salt and cinders to break down the ice. We talked to one guy that walked ahead to see what was going on. He said two tractor trailers were stuck at the bottom of the hill and it didn’t seem like they were going to allow people past for awhile.
Despite my dislike for abandoning a plan , I decided it made sense to just turn around and go back to my dad’s place until the ice melted. Since the salt truck just went the other way I was able to get back to the house pretty easily following it’s lead. I called dad and gave him a heads up, letting him know we were delaying our departure. He was on his way for a blood test but said Teresa was there.
We pulled back in and said hi to Charlie and Teresa once again. We wound up staying at the house until shortly before 9AM to play it safe. We said our second set of goodbyes and pulled out again. This time the roads were much better, the ice was melted and we got onto the interstate without issue.
Since we got a 3 hour late start that put us behind from the get go. I knew I had a long day of driving ahead. The drive seemed slow, especially going through West Virginia that felt like it took half the day. We must have traversed the absolute fattest portion of the state. I found myself going into my almost trance like driving zone where endless miles roll by without much conscious thought occurring. You say things like, oh, such a place is ONLY 300 miles away, like that is relatively close.
I set a mental goal of wanting to get at least get 800 miles under our belt since we did 913 on day one coming up. In order to do so we wound driving until after 11 pm, pulling into a Savannah La Quinta in a near zombie-like state Wednesday night. The La Quinta did not appear to merit the 4 star rating Cindy said it had (she later realized she misread it) Hotels with outward facing doors almost always are not a good sign. That proved to once again be the case. The room was smelly, not well stocked with supplies, had a shower scaled for midgets and was just overall pretty shitty. We hardly cared, we just wanted a place to crash.
Both Cindy and I were experiencing some weird dizzyness that night, perhaps from being dehydrated. When I was emptying the van it felt like it was rocking. When I took a shower it felt like I was on a ship, I literally was grabbing walls to steady myself. It was bizarre that both of us had the same thing going on.
Despite our late finish, I still wanted to get up for an early start. I set my alarm for 5:30 and then somehow managed to wake up without the alarm at 5AM. Cindy was not happy about my early start but we used it to get a jump start on our final day of driving. It seemed weird to be able to once again don a t-shirt and shorts for the drive after being in the midst of a winter wonderland 24 hours earlier.
The drive on Thursday went smoothly with no more winter weather to slow us down. When Cindy drove I spent much of my time buried in Plants vs Zombies 2. I cleared all 75 levels during the trip although some of the levels would bog me down for 30 minutes or more depending on the difficulty.
I also continued reading Inferno, which I started in Marienville, the most recent Dan Brown book that Cindy bought for me months and months ago. I never read books but when I do, I always regret not doing it more.
One of the reasons I wanted to get an early start was so we could stop at a used car dealership in Sarasota. Before we left on the trip I had stumbled across a 2006 conversion van they had on it’s lot. It seemed to be a really sweet upgrade to the 18 year old party van and was decked out with some nice tech/geek gear to boot. When I had looked at the carfax they had available for it I saw it was bought at auction in October, meaning it has sat on their lot for 4-5 months. I figured another few days would be no big deal.
Well of course you know what happens, I stop in and the guy tells me it was sold the day before, just my luck. I wasn’t looking hard for a new van but this one seemed worth investigating. I guess the current party van will continue to serve it’s role as dog transport and comfortable road trip transportation for the near term future.
We got back to homebase around 4PM but we actually got off the exit about 2:30. I had to drop off Sadie and get groceries on the way home as well. We arrived tired but glad both that we made it home and that our trip was full of lasting memories and new experiences.
I was quite glad I took Friday off as well. I have spent most of the day catching up on things. Those things included putting the new bed cover on the Tacoma and setting up my new gel infused king size mattress for the guest room. When I separated from Ali the king size mattress in the guest room became my bed and the guest room was filled with a queen size bed Jeremy donated to me.
A queen size bed is ok if you have a solo visitor but for couples it is pretty tight. It felt good to have my guest accommodations back up to snuff. I got lucky and was able to give away my old queen mattress to a co-worker of my neighbor. They stopped by this afternoon and took it away.
Saturday morning I followed through with my plan to reboot my running program. Cindy and I did a little over 3 miles at the nearby track. Running on the track can deliver a pretty high dosage of boredom as you circle the same 400 meters again and again but it is also nice to know exactly how far you have gone and how far you have yet to go without a GPS.
I had to derail Cindy from her usual talk heavy tendencies as the run went on. Since I hadn’t run since New Year’s Day I wasn’t feeling all that great. When I don’t feel all that great I try to insulate my mind from my body by letting it drift to whatever subject it lands on. Responding to someone else’s conversation breaks that process. The good thing is Cindy knows that and if I give her the NTZ (no talk zone) indicator, she is pretty good at just letting me be.
My GPS and Cindy’s had a pretty large disagreement on how far and how fast we ran. My Garmin said we logged something like 3.29 miles at an 8:33 pace. Cindy’s said we did something like 3.17 at a 9:00 pace. I liked my numbers better. Either way I felt well exerted and as a bonus left the track without a limp. My right knee felt ok.
When I got back to the house I headed outside to tend to outdoor chores. Despite the extensive efforts that were put into the protecting the garden during recent cold spells the tomatoes have officially bit the dust. I ripped out the two dead plants.
I had everything finished up by noon clearing the way for my next automotive project, bypassing the transmission cooler on my Tacoma.
You may wonder why I was bypassing my perfectly good factory trans cooler? Well recently a guy commented on one of my other Tacoma videos, thanking me for the guidance it gave him on his repair. He also clued me in to another common failure of Tacomas around the age of mine, trans cooler ruptures. Evidently the factory transmission cooler, which is enclosed within the radiator has a history of failing. If that happens, antifreeze is pumped into the transmission which will kill it shortly thereafter. Well the last thing I need to is to replace the transmission on my 15 year old truck so I figured installing a $40 trans cooler was a good insurance policy.
I won’t go into vast detail on the trials and tribulations of the replacement (there were many) as they are outlined in the video. The end result was I got the cooler installed albeit using methods that are less than ideal in my book. I will be keeping an eye on the front end of the truck to make sure I don’t see any trans fluid puddles going forward. So far, so good.
On Saturday night we watched Don Jon, a movie about a guy that is majorly addicted to porn. The movie was entertaining enough but I can’t really tell you much about the plot, I am not sure if there really was much of one. It was a solid Netflix rental but if you are a sexual prude, steer clear. It gets a firm (no pun intended) B.
Sunday morning was utilized mostly to get more maintenance done, both the automotive and landscape variety. Cindy’s Miata was due for an oil change. She helped me do the work and actually enjoyed participating. After that I recharged her AC system as it was not blowing cold air anymore, despite the large chunk of money Cindy spent getting the compressor replaced last year.
Adding coolant to the system got it blowing cold again. I am hoping whatever is leaking is doing so in small quantity so I can just recharge it every couple of months of instead of throwing more repair money into the Miata which is already firmly in the “throwing good money after bad” category when it comes to repair costs.
After car maintenance was completed we headed to the backyard for landscape work. The areca palms outer fronds had all turned brown from the cold temps. I wanted to give them a nice haircut, they were overgrown anyway. I threw the hedge trimming attachment on my weed whacker and went nuts, leaving piles of decapitated palm fronds in my wake.
Cindy was on clean up duty, picking up the fronds and throwing them in the yard cart I had attached to the tractor, dumping them in the trench in the rear of the yard. Having her help made the task go MUCH faster than it would have flying solo.
Most of Sunday afternoon was low key. Sometime mid-afternoon a thought hit me as I glanced at the calendar while doing my bills. I noticed that next Monday was President’s Day, a day off for me. I recalled that Cindy said she had off Friday and Saturday as well. I wondered if somehow I could turn this into a short notice road trip to PA to visit my dad and step mom?
In March I have work and race commitments that would make a trip impossible. If I wanted to do it in 2014 it would have to be now. When I mentioned the idea to Cindy she was all for it, she was excited about the prospect of seeing and playing in snow in person, something she never has had a chance to do, ever. Of course this was all preliminary, I had to get a number of things lined up, first of all checking with Dad if he is ok with a short notice visit.
Dad was surprised by my proposal but happy to hear it. After verifying with my step mom, since she is the one who winds up doing most work associated with having company, he said he was cool with us coming up.
Next up I floated the idea to Ali. Ideally I would have liked to take both dogs along for the visit, despite the fecal disaster I encountered last year from Nicki. Ali was not agreeable to my taking Nicki again for fear of a relapse of that very poopy scenario so Sadie will be making the trek solo. However once we get to my dad’s place she will have my dad’s three dogs to keep her company. She will have a TON of fun.
Today I got the green light from work to take the time off so the trip is officially a go.
All of a sudden I now I have a massive list of things to get handled before the early Friday morning departure. I have a lot of mental checklists to mark off. Of course a lot of those marks are party van related. Everytime I push off for another road trip in the van it is always a leap of faith to some degree since it is an 18 year old vehicle. However each time I have called it into action it has gotten me to and from my numerous destinations with only a few small bumps in the road.
This winter in PA has been brutal, cold and long. The temps at my dad’s place have been non-stop frigid almost every day since Christmas. We will be lucky to see a couple days that get above freezing. It will be quite the eye opener for Cindy since she gets cold when temps dip into the 60’s. Seeing the new sheep and llama additions to my dad and stepmom’s animal menagerie should be fun as well.
I got a call from my accountant yesterday letting me know he was done with my taxes already. I am hoping the refund I am getting will be enough to cover getting the pool enclosure re-screened, something that is probably a year or two overdue. There are a number of panels on the top of the cage that are torn along the spline.
Last night I “made dinner” for Cindy and myself, juice. When I was flying solo I had a period of time where I was juicing pretty regularly and days I didn’t juice a lot of my meals were wraps with just veggies/nuts in them. It’s probably not a coincidence that when I was doing that I weighed 10 pounds less.
I got away from juicing primarily because I found it to be above the hassle quotient I was willing to tolerate with food prep. Between prepping/cleaning the fruits/veggies to juice and the pretty messy clean up afterwards I just tired of it. Not only was cleaning the juicer a PIA, cleaning up the food shrapnel that sprays out during the juicing process was annoying as well.
Well last week I got the inspiration to pick up the juicing ball, at least on a limited basis. I am thinking maybe I could do it one or two times a week as a dinner replacement. Cindy, who is always game for pretty much anything healthy lifestyle related was excited to juice. Well she was less excited after taking the first sip.
The juice was a mixture of celery, carrots, tomatoes, and beets. By the time I was finished the juice container was filled to the very brim. I would best describe the juice as tasting very “earthy” as in like you were drinking dirt.
I attributed the taste to perhaps me not cleaning the beets as thoroughly as I should have although I don’t think I did anything differently than I did in the past. The only thing I might have done differently in the past was add an orange or apple to it as well.
Cindy tried to amend the dirt juice by mixing in some orange juice from the bottle. She said it didn’t help much. I choked mine down as is. Cindy got hers down as well. So our dinner last night consisted of a salad and the cup of dirt juice. Surprisingly I didn’t feel ravenous later. Despite the bad taste, the juice was a super concentrated shot of everything great fresh vegetables gives you .
I watched some of the Olympics last night, I originally thought the opening ceremonies were last night. Instead it was just some of the events like snowboarding and skating. Still I watched a hour or so of it.
I mixed it in with doing so server work at the office from home. I have been trying to get a few things implemented this week and have only been partially successful in doing so which is frustrating. I followed up with getting to work an hour early this morning to continue tweaking.
This weekend has a lot of potential things to keep me busy. I may try to start it off with putting in 3-5 miles at the local track to see how my tricky right knee feels. After that the chores will begin in earnest. I would like to get the auxiliary trans cooler I bought for the Tacoma installed and perhaps a partial trans fluid swap while I am at it. I have the supplies to change the oil on Cindy’s Miata as well so that should get knocked out too. The front discs on the Tacoma are going to need to be replaced in the near future as well.
So yesterday I was pointed to various stories that were tied into a statement made by Jay Carney, the White House Press Secretary. The full statement was this:
Over the longer run, CBO finds that because of this law, individuals will be empowered to make choices about their own lives and livelihoods, like retiring on time rather than working into their elderly years or choosing to spend more time with their families. At the beginning of this year, we noted that as part of this new day in health care, Americans would no longer be trapped in a job just to provide coverage for their families, and would have the opportunity to pursue their dreams.
However conservatives took a few key words to represent the statement in a manner that is obviously 180 degrees different than how it was intended. This tactic is used again and again by the media to gain influence with the massive portion of the population that are too ignorant, lazy , or indifferent to actually form their own opinions.
Carney was saying that the availability of the ACA act allows individuals to not be stuck in a job that is inadequate in other ways because it was the only way they could get health insurance for themselves and/or their family. They can instead pursue other work or even start a business without fear of not having a way to get affordable health care insurance. Conservatives and their media counterparts instead ingested this positive idea and crapped out that instead it means it encourages people to quit their jobs, stay at home and have others pay for their healthcare.
Anyone with the ability to construct a sentence of more than 5 words should be able to see just how ridiculous it is to interpret what Carney really said as meaning “Americans should stop working to “pursue their dreams” (stay at home). It’s absolutely moronic yet sadly there are millions of Americans that will eat every morsel of this bullshit and come back asking for seconds.
America is so fcked up. Thank you Koch brothers for your diligent and tireless work to ensure this is more and more the status quo every single day. Distract the masses by pitting them against each other while those at the top chuckle at all of us from their golden balconies.
My Saturday morning started very early this week, the 3:30 alarm drug my body out of bed unwillingly. The race I was timing was all the way down in Marco, making the extra time necessary. This race has always been a bit of a thorn in the side to put on. The long drive of course is never fun but also this race is staffed mostly with volunteers from the Marco organization that are not familiar with the ins and outs of a race.
The course logistics are troublesome as well with the registration area being several blocks from the race start/finish. This makes processing any problems with the results very difficult. Despite these challenges, the event went relatively well. The race also had a healthy amount of growth compared to last year, gaining an additional 80 participants.
The run itself is a tough one, back and forth over the steep bridge that connects Marco Island to the mainland. Cindy did the race and did well, getting third place in her age group.
When we got back to the house, after doing post race duties I still had chores to do of course. One of them was tending to the freshly planted garden. Everything that was planted is doing well except for a pepper plant that looks to be meeting an early demise. We even were able to use some of the romaine and red lettuce in salads over the weekend.
During my yard work I felt a nasty sting on my left shin. It felt more severe than a fire ant bite, more in line with the wasp sting I took to my face a few weeks back. Instinctively I swatted at the spot but did not see anything.
Over the weekend the area swelled up and was tender. Cindy looked at it and saw two fang marks. We are theorizing some sort of spider got me. Hopefully it isn’t one the brown recluse spiders that hang around my place.
Saturday night Cindy and I went to see the new Hunger Games movie. I never read any of the books but enjoyed the first movie so seeing number two was a no-brainer. The theater was actually kind of full, the fullest I can remember a Coconut Pointe movie being for me. Sure it was still easy to find a good seat but I bet the place was over half full.
The movie was good. The reason I knew it was good was the clock. When the movie ended I felt like there should be more to go, it felt like the movie was short. Well when I looked at my watch when we left it was 9:45, meaning the movie was a good 2:30 minutes long. For a movie that long to feel short means it is pretty damn good. I’d give it an A. I am looking forward to seeing the next installment. If you want to see my 6 second Vine recap, go here. (spoiler alert)
Cindy and I scuttled plans to go for a bike ride Sunday morning. She was feeling some side effects from her race and I assured her my chore plans for the day would give me enough exercise. The main target was pressure washing the sheds. However before doing that I had a smaller chore to do, for my neighbor.
The large collection of water equipment they have apparently is doing a poor job of keeping their well water in good shape. In an effort to combat that, they have been letting the equipment do a recharge every single night. (not recommended) Basically when you recharge the equipment it back flushes the white rock filtration substance with brine (salt water). This process expels tons of waste water which is dumped elsewhere via a drain hose. Well the hose for the system is buried for the most part, except for the end of it which is positioned about 15 feet from my fence line. The nightly recharges and all the water they dump has turned the corner of my fence into a perennial swamp land for the last few months.
Of course this annoyed me. Not only did it look like shit, the wet ground has the potential of rotting out the fence posts prematurely which be a major pain in the ass for me. Finally a couple weeks ago I said something to the husband, telling him they need to reroute that drain line so it doesn’t impact my property. I even went so far as to give him a big coil of 1/2″ pvc pipe I had left over from when I extended my drain line last year. I told him all he would need to do is install a coupler to connect the existing line to the new one.
A few days later I saw there was some connector on the line but it was short lived. It was a press/friction connector that did not hold up to the water pressure, a day or two later it came apart and my corner was again soppy. I saw the neighbor, she said she was the one that tried to install the connector. (husband isn’t very handy) I figured I might as well just fix it myself since it impacts me and is an easy fix.
I bought some band clamps and a connector. The connector I bought actually was a bit small. I wound up repurposing the one in my drain line. I’ll just buy myself another. Connecting the lines together was a bit of a muddy job but not difficult otherwise. I look forward to having a dry corner.
I then moved onto pressure washing. For some reason I had the idea in my head that I could pressure wash both sheds in a couple of hours. I am not sure where I that idea came from. Instead I spent between 4 and 5 hours out there blasting away. I was having some pressure washer issues that slowed things down. The washer would simply shut off periodically without apparent reason. When I would start it back up it would run fine again, until it shut off again. In total I probably restarted the damn thing 20 times. I am going to get some fuel system cleaner to run through it.
I also consumed some time pressure washing a few other items like the exterior of the pool cage, the shed ramps, garden hardware, pavers and more. The items I cleaned looked tons better. I emerged from the project soaked from head to toe and covered with mud splatter, hot. The dogs were out at the house on Sunday as well. It was overcast and on the cool side most of the day so they really enjoyed just hanging outside in the yard.
Sunday night we watched The Amazing Burt Wonderstone. The movie was funny enough, entertaining enough and short enough to earn a solid B rating. Worth a Netflix rental but not $20 to see in a theater.
This week is going to be a blur until the Thanksgiving race is done. There are so many ducks lined up. Each and everyone has to be a hit and I probably have the most bullets of anyone in this game. I hope I don’t miss.
Over the weekend my grandmother, whom for the last decade has lived a miserable existence suffering from diabetes and Alzheimer’s, passed away, thankfully. Although I never had a close relationship with my grandma, she was still my grandmother. Regular blog readers may recall the last time I saw my grandmother and the emotional torture I felt seeing her in that state, having no idea who I was and reacting angrily to any attempts to communicate with her. It was horrible.
The news of her passing brought on feelings of sadness and remorse but they were quickly replaced with relief that her days of suffering have finally come to an end. Wherever grandma is, hopefully she has a cat on her lap.
It’s stories like grandma’s and my grandfather before her that make me so unwilling to go down the same road myself, where the only reason you are kept alive is as a profit center for a nursing home.
I set up my three day Veterans Day weekend to be very labor intensive. It was enough to do’s that I created one of my infamous to do lists to keep me on point. I wasted no time getting started on the list, hanging a towel bar in the master bathroom somewhere around 8 o’clock Friday night. On Saturday I was up early and again resumed labor almost immediately after eating breakfast, weeding and weed whacking the property, finishing up by 8:30 am.
I had hopes of getting half of the tree trimming project done on Saturday afternoon, taking advantage of overcast skies and mild temperatures. Unfortunately those same clouds started dumping rain mid-afternoon. I only got the front trees trimmed before I had to retreat inside due to wetness.
The rain stopped my tree trimming but not my conquest to defeat the list. I immediately turned my attention to hanging the tv and sound bar on the wall in the master bedroom. I had bought a cheap (less than $30) mount kit from Costco, two outlet boxes to route the cables into/out of the wall, and a drywall saw to help me cut out the wall.
As in most projects I tackle, I had loose outline in my head of how things will go but I a lot of it was just going with the flow. Getting the TV on the wall wasn’t all that hard since I have basic math and measuring skills. I used both of these to determine center point on the wall and then a level for the template and the brackets used to suspend the TV.
The bracket install hit a small snag when one of the mounting halls fell on top of a metal stud. The instructions directed me to drill a 3/8″ inch hole into the metal stud and then use a self tapping PLASTIC mount into the stud. Well the self tapping mount disintegrated when it hit the metal. Instead I went and grabbed one of my drywall mounts/screws and managed to get a secure connection to the wall.
The toggle bolt things they include for plain drywall mount were surprisingly strong and secure. When I saw on the box the kit supported a TV up to 80″ and/or 121 pounds on any wall surface I was skeptical. After attaching the brackets I was a believer. They felt well up to the task of holding my 47 inch LED on the wall. Unfortunately getting the TV on the wall was only the first part of this project. I had my LG sound bar to get up there as well as cutting out and installing the two outlet boxes to hide the cables.
Mounting the sound bar was the simpler of the two remaining items, once again only requiring a measuring tape and a level after I marked where the bottom of the tv was on the wall. The outlet boxes were more of a challenge. The top box needed to be behind the tv, hidden from view. Luckily, the outlet boxes I bought can literally be put anywhere on a wall, no stud required. They use a cool setup to extend arms behind the drywall that locks the box in place when tightened.
I put the top box centered and above the bottom of the tv frame. The second box was located about 6 inches below the top of the dresser. Once the boxes were in place there was a tedious cable routing task that took awhile. At first I thought I would need a longer HDMI cable for the Blu-ray player but I found a 6 footer that was just long enough.
So after about 3 hours of work I had everything in place and cleaned up. I am very pleased with the outcome. The TV and sound bar look awesome on the wall and the top of my dresser is no longer a cluttered mess. It makes the room look significantly different for some reason.
Saturday night we watched my latest Netflex rental, Pain Gain. It was a disappointing way to test out my slick new TV install. The movie was terrible. It’s hard to believe it was based on a true story. Michael Bay is quickly becoming another M. Night Shamaylan. What is the last movie he did that people actually liked? I’d give the movie a C-, clearly the worst film I have ever seen The Rock or Marky Mark ever take part of.
Sunday morning started off with a 20 mile DD ride. The ride there was a wonderfully wind assisted stroll in the park. Of course that meant the ride back was the opposite, a full time, full wind that made maintaining 15 mph miserable. Cindy insisted on being in the lead the entire way back saying it was good training for her half Ironman in January.
After getting back from the tiring ride we “rested” by resuming the tree trimming project. Cindy was the limb removal crew, picking up and dumping the hundreds of palm fronds in the back fill pit while I worked high up in the tree tops. Every year this job gets more and more dangerous due to a trees tendency to grow. There are two trees in particular that are very high, so high that even with my 20 foot extension ladder and long arms I am hard pressed to reach everything.
This year I utilized the electric chainsaw/pole trimmer that Todd bought me for Xmas 2012 to get some of the tippy top branches. The problem is trying to operate the pole saw while precariously balanced on a wobbly extension ladder is very difficult. There were more than a few times that my balance point was dangerously close to the tipping point. In total we spent 3 hours finishing up the project. Having Cindy take branches back was a huge time saver. I told her when I did this job solo I could easily consume a solid 8 hours of grueling labor.
My reward for the tree trimming work was an Eagles win, and a convincing one at that against the Green Bay Packers, in Green Bay no less. Granted, the Packers were sort of playing with one arm tied behind their back since Aaron Rodgers was out with an injury and their back up got hurt in the first series, leaving their 3rd stringer to guide the team. Still, the Eagles offense played well, and the defense made big plays and stops when they needed to to keep the game from getting close.
However the most impressive thing I saw all game was at the very end when the Eagles ran the ball down the throat of the Packers to run out the clock. I can’t recall the last time the Birds actually closed out a game convincingly in that manner. It was a great win.
So the Eagles are now tied with the Cowboys in the lackluster NFC East with a 5-5 record. Amazingly the Eagles are 5-0 on the road and 0-5 at home, a very baffling and aggravating trend. Why the Eagles have never been a strong team at the Linc remains a mystery but I can only hope that trend starts reversing this week against the Redskins.
Sunday night Cindy and went to see the new Thor movie in 3D. I liked the movie, probably as much as I liked the first version. It gets a solid Marvel super hero flick A rating from me. However almost every Marvel superhero movie gets an A from me. They just know how to do it right.
After an ass busting first two days to the weekend I vowed to make Veterans Day much less laborious. I sort of did. The day started with a trip to Lowes to grab garden soil and some plants to get the Florida winter garden season kicked off. On the way back we took the dogs to the swamp for a walk, a place I hadn’t been to in a long time. Cindy had never been there.
Cindy immediately appreciated why I enjoyed my walks with the dogs there, it’s so remote, so peaceful, so quiet. The last time I went to the swamp with the dogs Nicki was EXTREMELY sore and stiff afterwards so I was very mindful of how far we went. We turned back around a half mile from the boardwalk area not wanting to push Nicki too hard. Her pace was slow and steady for the walk and despite her mobility issues she seemed to still enjoy sniffing the endless unique things the swamp offers. We had a couple wildlife encounters, seeing a small 3 foot gator on the way out and a larger, 6 foot gator that was half across the path on the way back. The high water levels made Cindy a bit nervous since there was very little distance between the water and path you walk along.
Well despite the reduced distance and slow pace, Nicki again really struggled after the walk. She seemed to be in a lot of pain. The idea that that might have been her last walk in the swamp made me very sad.
Cindy once again helped in the garden prep. I turned over, amended and tilled the soil. Cindy was the raker/tamper. After the beds were prepped, lettuce, cauliflower, tomato and pepper plants were put in the ground. I actually have another two or three empty beds that I can put stuff in. I’d like to fill them with perhaps some broccoli and kale plants.
The list, which I seriously doubted would be totally completed turned out to be a crossed out, a thing of a beauty, before Monday was done.
During the afternoon I took my two quad copters outside to fly, despite some serious wind. I had not flown the Blade MQX since I bent and replaced one of the rotors. Well my initial flight attempts with the copter clearly indicated I did something wrong. As soon as I would try to launch the Blade it would immediately corkscrew into the ground. After repeated attempts I figured I did something wrong when I replaced the prop, I did.
The Blade came with two additional black props (rear) and white props (front) I figured both of the black props were the same, they aren’t. I had stupidly put the wrong prop on, causing the crash and burn behavior. After I swapped it out the Blade once again flew correctly. I had a couple bad crashes that bent the pliable props in the same manner that caused me to replace the black one. However instead of replacing these I simply bent the prop back in place so it was more or less straight. Surprisingly the quadcopter seemed to fly just fine with the low tech repair, cool.
If you didn’t know, November is known in some circles as Movember, a play on words that is tied in with a testicular cancer awareness thing. Basically men are encouraged to sport a mustache during the month to raise awareness. Randall has participated in this movement for several years. Since he is visiting this upcoming weekend I thought I should hop on board, despite not really being a fan of the look.
So once again Saturday I managed to consume almost my entire day doing work around the house. Part of the work got particularly messy when I decided to use the pressure washer, which I had already pulled out to blast crud off the mower deck, to clean the castle stone border around the pool. In the 9-10 months that the stones have been in place they had become encrusted in black mildew just as many things do in the south Florida climate.
Hitting the stones with the high pressure washer did a great job of blasting the scuzz off the stones. Unfortunately it also did a great job of bouncing alot of it, along with dirt/sand all over me. The front of my body was coated with shit from head to toe, the price of pressure washing…
I did take a break to do something fun for a little bit. A little while ago my sister and her husband went to a race track where you could take various high performance vehicles out for a spin. I saw my sis driving a high end Audi and Damon driving a Lamborghini and a Ferrari. Video was provided by something similar to a GoPro, mounted behind the driver to give a FPV (first person view) It was cool.
So anyway, it gave me the idea to do my own first person view video with the SSR. I don’t have a GoPro or a GoPro style mount so I used the next best thing, a paper towel roll and duct tape. I jammed my Flip camera into one end, placed the paper towels on the top of the SSR “waterfall” that separates the driver and passenger seats and crudely secured it to the windscreen with a big chunk of duct tape. It looked absolutely ridiculous.
I had no idea how the rig would work once I got on the road. My biggest concern was it didn’t fly out of the truck. I turned on the camera and hit the road.
As you can tell from the 4:30 of video, the rig didn’t work all that well once I was up to speed, the video starts to shake violently from getting buffeted by the wind. However there was one part it did work pretty well for. Behold my FPB (first person burnout)
On Sunday morning it was brick time but in a different manner than normal. Cindy agreed to do the DD ride with me which is an out and back to the nearest Dunkin Donuts which is almost exactly 10 miles from my house, making for a challenging 20 mile overall ride. Despite leaving before 8AM, the heat and humidity arrived in force very early on.
I lead on the way to DD, we covered the first 10 miles in something like 31:30, a good pace considering I haven’t done this ride in ages. After downing a small coffee we headed back east, typically the more difficult of the two directions since the wind is normally working more against you. Cindy got in front and maintained a crazy pace of 20+ mph, at times even scraping 23, I was down on the aero bars of my Dawes giving everything I had to stay within 6 or 7 feet of her to catch some of the wind blocking. Otherwise there would be no way I could have maintained that speed.
We actually wound up doing a negative split on the ride and I am almost positive it is the fastest that 20 miles has ever been gobbled up, even faster than when I have done the ride with Randall. Cindy is a really strong cyclist obviously, significantly better than I am.
So after arriving home I was exhausted. Staying on the aero bars for 10 miles pedaling my ass off had sucked all of the energy out of my legs. Still, I wanted to get some swimming in. So we changed and headed to the water park. I got 1500 yards in the pool. I wasn’t as fast as the week before when all I did was swim and averaged 10 minutes per 500. I still pulled a good time for me, averaging about 10:30 per segment.
After the laps we got some additional ancillary exercise by climbing the water slide tower 5 times to do each slide one time. By the time it was all over I was spent. The bust ass bike in the heat followed by the swimming was like pulling the drain plug on my energy reserves. I had ideas of changing the oil on the Tacoma Sunday afternoon but I said f it, I was just too tired to head back out into the afternoon frying pan heat to do it. I took a two hour nap instead.
Last night I saw Ted, the movie about the talking, crude teddy bear. I heard it was funny, really funny. It was. I laughed out loud a ton, it was lots of fun as long as you don’t get offended by dirty humor. If you haven’t seen it and are looking for a way to fill a couple hours with laughs rent it. I give it a shiny A.
This is one of those weird weeks for me, I am doing remote classroom training from home. The best part of it is the class doesn’t start till 10AM, meaning I get to sleep in and get stuff done around here (like the write the blog) before having to “work”. I am hoping this training will be more interesting than the last I attended. It should be since it is a subject I am more interested in, Windows Server 2012 installation and configuration.
So Saturday morning I skipped the club run. I didn’t feel like getting up early and both of my knees felt varying degrees of ouch. I also had a very sore lower back from my 110 back extensions the day before. Instead I directed my energy towards chores, lot and lots of chores.
I did just a ridiculous amount of things. For fun I wrote down everything I did, it added up to close to 20 different to do’s. Most of my effort was outside. I decided to address a lot of pruning and trimming that needed to be done on various trees and bushes. We are in the absolute epicenter of horribly humid and hot Florida summertime weather. I literally felt like I was melting as I toiled in the yard.
The amazing thing is with all of that work, I still felt like I had left stuff on the plate yet to do. I found all of this work despite having mowed the entire property during the week, which was a good thing since standing water has returned in force thanks to multiple deluges the past few days.
I originally had hopes of spending some f around time on Saturday playing video games or trying to fly my wing but there was just no spare time to be found before heading out to the movies.
We saw the new Wolverine movie. Despite it being opening weekend, Coconut Pointe once again delivered a sparsely populated theater, even with us walking in right at the 7:30 showtime. It was the 3D version but to be honest I am having a hard time remembering exactly what was 3D about it. Perhaps I am just so accustomed to 3D now that my brain hardly even recognizes the difference.
I liked the movie, I thought it was very solid from start to finish. Hugh Jackman is REALLY jacked nowadays, he is built like an NFL linebacker. There were two little odd things I noticed in this Marvel film. If Stan Lee was in there for his customary little cameo, I totally missed it. I don’t recall seeing him at all. Marvel films also are known for putting a little bonus scene at the VERY end of the credits that reveals what is coming next. There was a short scene about a minute after the movie ended but we stuck it out another 10 minutes till the actual end of the credits. There was nothing there, damn it. Anyway, it gets a solid A from me. The little bonus footage made me anxious to see the next film, it looks like the X-men are reassembling. 🙂
On Sunday my knees still did not feel great so instead of a brick I wimped out and did just a single exercise, swimming. I figured since I was only swimming I should go longer than I normally do, both in my segments and overall distance. The water in the lap pool area was really warm, if I were to guess it was easily in the upper 80’s. Warm water is nice to soak your feet in, it is pretty lousy to try to swim distance in. I felt like I was lapping in a bath tub.
Despite the warm water I was strangely faster than normal in the pool, averaging a minute per 50 yards, completing each 500 yard segment in right around 10 minutes. I did a total of 4 segments totaling up to 2000 yards in the water. I wasn’t quite sure why I was faster, I guessed it might simply be because I did not pre-fatigue myself with running or biking beforehand.
Even with just doing the swimming, I emerged from the pool thoroughly spent. The faster pace and warm water did a number on me.
Once again Cindy had a run in with a clueless individual. This time some guy decided he would exit the diving pool area by flailing across the lane Cindy was swimming in, once again causing a near collision. Cindy stopped abruptly and asked him what he was doing. His explanation was he thought he could beat her across the lane before she got there. Unfortunately this behavior is a by product of trying to swim laps at a public pool, the dumb asses are on a very loose and long chain.
The dogs seemed to be having a good weekend with me, despite the property being overrun with mosquitoes which made an outdoor excursion a swat fest. They both got baths and Nicki has been eating her revamped meals quite eagerly. The addition of boneless chicken thighs seems to be the trick.
Sunday morning I spent some time remote controlled into mom’s laptop. She had been complaining of overall poor performance for awhile. I have done various tweaks over the years trying to extend the usefulness of the 7 or 8 year old laptop but I think we have reached the end of the road. Today’s internet assumes you are running hardware with a big blob of memory and a fast processor. 512 MB just isn’t going to cut it anymore.
I have a spare PC that I may be able to add enough memory to that I am thinking about giving mom. If for some reason it doesn’t work out I will just buy mom a new or lightly used pc to replace the old laptop.
Sunday afternoon I still found myself with stuff to do, part of which was replacing the door speakers in Cindy’s Miata to accompany the new headrest speakers that were installed the weekend prior. I had to do some creative engineering to get them mounted in a way that was more secure than the horribly low effort way the old shitty speakers were thrown in there. I would really like to meet whichever prior owner that did some of the “upgrades” on the car. I have a feeling he has a large stockpile of duct tape somewhere.
Sunday evening a good friend of Cindy’s came out to the house to hang out and watch movies with us. He happens to have Corvette, a less than a year old beast. I saw an interesting photo op with a real Corvette behind my SSR that sports a 2005 Corvette LS2 motor in it.
I use my Xbox 360 as a dvd player. A couple weeks ago I made the mistake of agreeing to participate in a beta program with my living room 360. Basically they are testing new versions of their operating system, presumably as part of the roll out of the new Xbox One this holiday season.
Well as a result I am getting tons of these huge, slow to download updates every time I turn the damn thing on. Before we could watch a movie last night I had to sit through yet another at least 15 minute download/update. It’s very annoying.
We watched Idiocracy (again). I made sure to have 3 BLP’s in me before watching. Despite this being my third time watching the movie I still laughed at it, a lot. We followed it up with The Campaign, yet another Will Ferrel comedy.
A lot of Will’s recent films have been a mild disappointment to me with most of the funny moments shown in the previews with precious little else to make me laugh beyond that. Well I found The Campaign very funny, possibly assisted by my mild drunkenness. Perhaps it was also the direct smacks in the face of the likes of George W Bush or the slimy Koch brothers. Regardless, I laughed out loud, a lot. I would give it an A-.
So when Alfred left I hopped in the SSR to pull it back in the garage. It had been sitting in the driveway since I pulled it out to work on the Miata. As soon as I slid in the seat I knew something was fishy, no interior lights popped on with the door being open. When I inserted the key my suspicions were confirmed, it was dead as a doornail. WTF. How could the truck go from starting a few hours ago to COMPLETELY dead. Perhaps something was ajar or the ignition switch wasn’t completely off, allowing the radio to still be on?
Well whatever the reason I wanted to get the SSR back in the garage. The solution seemed simple, jump it. I pulled the Tacoma next to the SSR and grabbed my jumper cables. The SSR is a bit of an oddball when it comes to the battery, it is located under the truck, in the rear in a box. However they try to make jumping the vehicle less of a pain by having remote jump start terminals in the engine bay.
So as I was working in the open air I was getting absolutely mauled by hungry mosquitoes, freshly hatched in the once again abundant standing water. When I slid back in the SSR to try to start it, the blood suckers followed me, it was pretty maddening.
I was baffled when the interior of the truck still seemed totally dead except a very faint glowing of the check engine light. I got back out and reattached the cables, this time I got a spark and some life from the interior. I tried starting it but only got a partial turn followed by clicking. I told Cindy to bring the RPM’s up on the Tacoma to try to increase the amperage from it’s alternator. Still, I got a couple turns but not enough for the truck to start. DAMN IT!
So my next plan of attack was to try to jump directly on the SSR battery. I crawled under the truck with my stick light and removed the side panel which gave me access to the terminals. I was getting bit non-stop by mosquitoes but at this point my frustration was masking the repeated pin pricks.
I exposed the battery terminals, reconnected the jumper cables and had the same level of success as under the hood, half turns followed by clicking. ARGH. For whatever reason I was not getting a solid enough connection with the cables to support the amp draw to start the SSR , mother f….
Ok well maybe I can at least get my beloved truck in the garage, out of harms way. It was on the incline part of the driveway leading up to the garage. For some reason I thought that possibly I would be able to push the 5000 pound vehicle up the hill and into the garage. That was an epic fail of course, as soon as Cindy released the brake it started rolling backwards, despite my efforts to move it the other direction.
Ok I was officially out of options. I once again returned under the back of the truck and dropped the battery box as I was getting riddled by mosquito bites, pulling the battery out so I could get a new one today. I am crossing my fingers it is JUST the battery. Despite having a number of batteries goes from good to dead since moving to Florida, the symptoms I saw with the SSR make me think something else could be in the mix. I’ll find out tonight after work.
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I took a picture of the new solar lights I bought from Costco. I told you they were cool.
The adapter screws into the prop, eliminating the problem. Balancing a prop is a pretty simple procedure. After mounting it on the balancer you turn the prop so it is sideways. If it is balanced it will hang in that position. If it is not it will fall to whichever side is slightly heavy.![1511348_10152879974737841_576090748_n[1]](https://blog.duf.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/1511348_10152879974737841_576090748_n1.jpg)
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This week is going to be a blur until the Thanksgiving race is done. There are so many ducks lined up. Each and everyone has to be a hit and I probably have the most bullets of anyone in this game. I hope I don’t miss.![1458575_10152585448297841_752164539_n[1]](https://blog.duf.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/1458575_10152585448297841_752164539_n1.jpg)
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