Category Pets

Saturday morning the alarm went off at 3:45 AM.  Even though this race was on the small side and geographically closer to my house than most we needed the extra time to make sure the dogs adequately attended to their bathroom needs.  Since this was a first year race, I also wanted to make sure I was on site early to give me some extra time to deal with unexpected issues.

We did not have to use as much of our equipment as we normally do since the pavilion we used for registration had a bunch of lighted, covered, picnic tables which worked out great.  The biggest issue with the race logistics was the finish line was a far distance from the pavilion where post race awards were handed out.  This is never a good layout, making posting results on site and making corrections as needed a real pain in the ass.

For this race I once again used my GoPro to capture the finish line video.  Using a slick feature from RunSignUp, I am able to display a link to each runner which takes them directly to their finish on video.  Having video of the finish line also allows me to use it to reconcile errors.  I actually was able to reference the video later to confirm a finishing time for somebody whose timing device failed. All in all the event went well.  If the event continues next year we now have a few key changes in mind that could be made to make it even better.

When we pulled back in the driveway after the race the guy that painted the pool deck was already there waiting.  The original intent was to have him “fix” the various spots on the deck where the paint was coming off.  However I already knew before he showed up that wasn’t going to be an ideal outcome.  Even if I was ok with him just slapping some paint on the spots, the deck was too damp and dirty to paint anyway.

I started to make my case for something more extensive than a quick touch up to be done.  The guy had a long list of excuses he fed me, saying that moisture can cause what I am seeing and also pool chemicals could be partly to blame as well.  He scratched a couple of the affected spots and commented that if the paint was really bad it  would be coming up with his nail.

I calmly listened to his excuses but kept hitting him with the same, indisputable counter point.  The front landing of the house which was painted at least 5 years ago using the same process supposedly as was done on the pool deck has no paint lifting off.  I backed that up with my neighbors pool deck which was painted by Rhinoshield a few months before mine.  His deck still looks perfect.

After hitting him with this again and again as I pointed out spot after spot all over the deck where small specks of paint were gone he finally agreed that the best course would be to repaint the entire deck with one more coat.  I was happy to hear him agree however the next challenge will be actually getting it to happen.  We need to get out of this miserable cycle of constant precipitation before anything can be done.  That means I’ll be lucky to get anything done before November hits.

Cindy and I worked outside in the very wet yard to take care of what we could.  It was so wet that mowing the grass didn’t even enter my mind as a possibility.  I just hate when things get this wet.  After getting the stuff done we headed out with the dogs for some errands.  The first stop was Petco which was a treat for the girls.  They loved nosing around the store.  I spent over $100 there, the bulk of it being spent on two items, a set of pet clippers to give Nicki a hair cut and an inflatable “cone”.  Once in awhile we catch Nicki rubbing her surgically repaired eyes.  The last thing I want is for her to undo the work.  If we find her doing it anywhere close to what she did before this inflatable, easily removable, more comfortable device will be slapped on her.  It would only be for her own good.

The next stop was Costco where Cindy and I became totally drenched running from the van to the store in a torrential downpour.  Entering the highly air conditioned environment after being soaked gave both Cindy and I the shivers as we walked the aisles.  The main reason for us going there was to grab a pair of boots for the the backyard that Cindy had seen when we were at the store a couple weeks prior.

We then headed from there to Sam’s Club, an odd one two punch since both places are warehouse superstores.   I was at Sam’s to get a security DVR I had seen there before.  No, this was not for my homestead, it is yet another bit of technology I am incorporating into our races.

When I was at the RunSignUp conference one timer mentioned how he uses a security DVR to capture the finish line.  He uses the video both for runners and for himself as a timing safety net.  If there is a finish line timing question a security DVR makes it very easy to go back and reexamine a runner’s finish without disrupting the existing live recording.

I bought a Samsung four camera unit.  I probably will only utilize two of the four cameras on race day, one facing either direction of the finish line.  I set the box up at home over the weekend and played around with it.  It worked well as a makeshift chicken cam.

Saturday night we skipped our customary trip to the theater to catch up further on our X1 DVR content.  We have finally watched the backlog of recording we accumulated.

Our Sunday was very busy.  It started off with a trip to the track.  While I ran a sweaty 5K around the track at an 8:55 pace Cindy walked the school grounds with the dogs for awhile before speed walking the track herself.  We went from there to CVS and Dunkin Donuts.  At both places I sat in the van with the girls while Cindy ran in.  At both places it took a very long time, for different reasons.

The rest of our morning was very busy.  While I was washing Cindy’s Prius she was trying to shave Nicki herself in the backyard.  It was difficult to get Nicki to stay in a good shaving position and work the shaver at the same time so I came to assist.  I kept scratching Nicki’s ears which kept her standing, making it easier for Cindy to buzz off more hair.  What didn’t make it easy was the sun and humidity baking us. Both Cindy and I were sweating buckets.

By the time Cindy was done there was black hair piled up everywhere.  We followed up with an outdoor bath administered via the hose and a bucket of soapy water.  Nicki looked younger after the haircut.  The shaggy coat she has developed since being put on thyroid medicine ages her.

Cindy worked her ass off all day long.  In addition to Nicki’s spa treatment she did more housework, cooking, baking and another workout to supplement the time at the track that morning.  Her energy level is something to be admired.

I kept busy until the Eagles came came on.  It was disappointing game and a historic loss.  No team has ever run a punt back for a touchdown, returned an interception for a touchdown and blocked a punt for a touchdown and lost the game, until yesterday.  The Eagles somehow managed to pull it off.  As good as special teams were, the offense was equally inept.  Except for late in the 4th quarter the offense did NOTHING, literally not putting a single point on the board for the game.

The defense did some stuff right obviously with the interception and applying pressure on the QB almost the entire game.  However even with that pressure they still found ways to give up big yardage both on the ground and in the air.  The Eagles secondary, which seems to be called upon to be in man to man coverage quite often just is not up to the task.  I saw the Eagles pass defense is rated 30th in the league, only two spots from the very bottom.  They are just not good enough.

The patchwork Eagles offensive line just does not appear good enough either.  They again allowed Foles to get smacked around far too much and seem totally incapable of run blocking.  I can  not believe that LeSean McCoy has had back to back horrible games as he has.  You can tell how frustrated he is. Being 3-1 at this point of the season is great in the big picture but some of the warts that we have been seeing make me worry about how the season will unfold going further.  If the defense remains this porous and the offensive line does not get better at protecting Foles and giving McCoy a lane to run things could unravel pretty quickly.

Over the weekend I was able to solve my Rubiks Cube, twice.  I created a one page cheat sheet that I still refer to for certain parts of the solve.  I can get two layers and the top cross on the third layer on my own.  Of course the goal is to be able to do the solve without any crutch being used.  I’ll keep practicing.

We have been getting poor sleep since dog sitting began.  Last night was probably the worst.  The dogs started making noise around 3.  I got up and let them out and went back to bed.  Nicki continued to make a fuss off and on for another 90 minutes although the reason was not clear.  Needless to say I will be dragging tonight.

Yesterday on the way home from work I picked up the girls for an extended stay.  They will be under roof until the fourth of October while Ali is on vacation in Paris.  Because I have a couple races to time during that time period I am going to have to call on some neighbor assist with letting the dogs out during those days.

Nicki’s energy is so much better since having the eye surgery.  Being able to have her full field of vision back has obviously improved her quality of life.  While we have her I think Cindy and I are going to undertake the very hairy task of shaving Nicki with clippers to get her shedding machine under control.  I am sure the before and after pictures are going to be very interesting.

Last night despite having the dogs around, which is normally a mood elevator, I found myself feeling aggravated.  Part of it was Cindy and I had to drive all the way up to the Fort Myers Airport to retrieve my mom’s Rav 4.  I’m not going into details about how it it wound up being there but let’s just say it was due to some very poor decision making.   By the time we got home it was around 9PM.  At least the dogs got a ride in the van out of it.

So when we headed back to the bedroom I wanted to fold up the treadmill so one of Nicki’s beds would go there.  I lifted up the track and encountered resistance about 15-20 degrees from the upright position.  It would not go all the way up, it felt like I was feeling binding on the left side.  Cindy and I embarked on at least a 15 minute ordeal, trying to see why this was.  It made no sense that it would suddenly no longer fold up.

I went as far as taking the plastic cover off the front of the treadmill so I could get a better look at the hinges to see if something was broken or misaligned.  Nope.  WTF??!  I was getting more and more aggravated.  Cindy suggested that we disconnect the hydraulic strut that is used to give lift assist.  It didn’t logically make sense why this would cause an issue but I was willing to try anything at this point.  I popped the connector apart and bam, the deck goes back into vertical position.  Wow.

Ok well although this didn’t make sense the deck was up.  All I had to do was slide in the locking pin.  So I reach around the left side to do so and see that the pin and the hole it normally resides in are misaligned by about an inch and a half.  Argh.  I futzed with it a bit and again had no idea what was going on but I had a faint recollection that it happened before.  I was going to simply tie the damn thing up, my patience was officially expired. Then it hit me.

I plugged the treadmill back in and looked at the elevation.  It was set to 5 degrees.  I now remembered that it will not fold back up until you reset the elevation all the way down.  By that time I had spent a total of 30 minutes fcking with it, taking it apart and putting it back together.  It all could have been avoided with the press of a button.  By the time I finally hit bed it was 11 ish.  I fell asleep glad that the day was officially over.

Friday night Cindy and I met up with friends of ours to catch Guardians of the Galaxy.  We caught a relatively late 7:45 showing.  Originally my lack of knowledge about the Guardians of the Galaxy comic books made me not all that interested in seeing the movie.  However Sean was able to fill in some of my gaps and spark more interest in the film for me.  I was glad he turned me around. The movie was funny and entertaining throughout.  I really enjoyed it, enough to hand it an A rating.  Go check it out.

It was weird enough for me to be going to a movie on a Friday night.  The odd behavior vaulted over the line when we went to dinner with Sean and Kim after the movie at 10PM.  I never, ever eat dinner that late.  We went to a nearby place called the South Fork Grille.  Cindy and I munched down on a couple appetizers since we had a light meal right after work.  The four of us had a good time hanging out, hopefully we get to do it on a more regular basis.

On Saturday we allowed the dogs and chickens to have their first coop free interaction.  I had the chickens out while I was weeding the property.  When Cindy got back from a DD coffee run with the dogs I had her bring them out back.  We put Sadie on her leash as she definitely could view a fleeing chicken as a big dog toy.  We left Nicki off leash, since she doesn’t have any chicken chasing speed left in her legs.  Surprisingly the interaction was rather boring.  Neither the chickens or the dogs got overly excited, it was more like a “hey, what’s up?” sort of thing.  Despite Sadie being very chill about the chickens I still can’t ever trust to let her out there with them free ranging.

A good portion of Saturday was spent finishing up the garage painting project, something Cindy already had put a lot of sweat equity into during the week.   She literally did ALL of the painting, my role was to take stuff down and then reassemble the space.  I also did a lot of organizing, sorting, relocating, and throwing out of items that live in the garage.

The Eagles Midnight Green accented by silver obviously makes the previously boring builder’s white garage look a lot different.  I actually cleared enough space that the SSR and Prius can comfortably both fit in the garage.  I used to have the SSR and Camry in the garage but it was very tight and required me to back the SSR into the garage in a very precise manner.  Since the Prius is much smaller I was able to pull both vehicles into the garage in a normal front first manner and still have room to get out of the door without requiring contortionist-like moves to get out.

I am happy with the garage outcome.  It’s the second space in the house that Cindy pretty much painted single handed.  She just loves to get things done.  This crosses a long term to do list item off the list that has existed for several years.  Finally, after 13 years in the house, every interior space has been painted.

On Saturday afternoon we piled the girls into the party van to head to Rural King.  On the way there we did something else nearly as rare as a 10 PM dinner, we stopped for ice cream.  In Bonita there is a cool little ice cream place in the shape of a cone, it reminds me of the same looking structure back in my Wernersville living days. I enjoyed a small cone of cookie dough ice cream while Cindy opted for one of her favorites, mint chocolate chip.

On Saturday night we enjoyed another great home cooked Cindy meal while watching Heat, a Netflix rental that has been laying around for a couple weeks.  It’s a comedy with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy.  The “fat woman saying fck” humor wore off on me after hearing it the first 50 or 60 times.  I fell asleep for the majority of the second half of the movie so I will have to take Cindy’s word that it was ok.  I guess that means it gets a B rating.

On Sunday morning I had ideas of running 4 miles around the water park before swimming.  Cindy dissuaded me from the plan after I complained of some GI issues and the idea of only starting to run at 9:15 AM, well into the broiler part of the day this part of the year.  Instead I decided I would just do some extended swimming instead.

We arrived at the park a little early, early enough that we got a head start on our 1000 rep video series. Cindy is working towards completing 1000 push up reps and I am grinding towards 1000 pull ups.  I struggled to get 15 reps on the fat and slippery high bar on the playground equipment.

I had an odd incident while swimming my 1600 yards.  I was on my third 400 leg in the pool.  I was in one of the two lanes, the other lane was unoccupied as Cindy couldn’t get her hair wet after just coloring it.  As I am making a turn around I see at the opposite end some Hispanic looking guy sitting on the edge in my lane with his feet hanging in the water.  My initial thought was, “Why would this idiot decide of all places to hang his feet in, he would do it in the lane I am actively swimming in??”  Well I assumed by the time I got to the end he was at he would get out of the way.

Well when I closed in on the wall I still saw two feet hanging in the water in front of me, dead center.  As I veered to the side  to touch I popped my head up and barked out “Dude, move over!” and continued back the other way, assuming he would heed my warning.  So as I reach the other wall to turn around I see has the guy has moved, about 12 inches to one side, still sitting in my lane.  WTF!!

So this time when I get to the side he is sitting on I pick up the aggression in my stroke.  The increased speed and impact with the water was intended to throw a second wet warning to the guy to go find somewhere else to dangle his feet, there is literally 1000 other feet of pool border he could have utilized.  So the next time I come up his way he has finally moved over to the unoccupied lane however I could see he was watching me intently.  I wasn’t sure if he was pissed because I told him to move and was giving me stink eye.  Well I knew for sure I was pissed so if he wanted to get into it I was ready.

So I am on final lap of my third set of 400’s.   Just before I hit the turn around the hispanic guy hops in the lane he was dangling his toes in and breast strokes to the opposite end, completing a gruesome 25 yards in the pool.  He was standing in the water at my end point.  Again, my assumption was he wanted to get into it about me telling him to move.  I angrily stroked into the wall, stood up and ripped my goggles off, ready for the argument to begin.

The first thing he says in his heavy accent is “Swimming is hard.  You swim for long time”, with no hint of anger or malice in his voice or on his face.  I was completely thrown off as I was fully prepped for conflict.  Instead I said awkwardly “yea, it’s good exercise”  Well that was all it took, the guy went on a 10-15 minute, mostly one sided conversation where he told me all about how he used to swim a lot in the open water in his home land of Puerto Rico.  I also found out that the water he swam in occasionally had sharks, that he used to sometimes ride to the beach to swim on a unicycle, and some guy that used to teach him about swimming could climb a coconut tree like a monkey.  After scaling the tree and getting coconuts he would use them as part of a protein drink he made on the spot for energy for the long swimming sessions.

The guys accent made it tough for me to follow along very well and I really had no interest in what he was saying anyway.  I tried to display my eagerness to get started on my final 400 repeatedly by reinserting my ear plugs and strapping my goggles onto my head.  None of it mattered, he just wanted to keep on talking.  Finally some woman came over and asked if she could share one of the lanes for swimming.  Thankfully I used that as a wall to stop the mudslide of words coming out of the guys mouth.  I told him I was going to finish my last set and swam off.  Thankfully by the time I finished up he had moved out of the area.

When I emerged from the pool I described the incident to Cindy.  She hadn’t seen him hanging his legs in the pool but she did hear the extended conversation pool side.  She was 100% sure the guy was hitting on me, something that never entered my mind until she said it.  I didn’t get that vibe in the moment but from a Monday morning QB viewpoint, I suppose that was a possibility.  Whatever the root cause, it was a very weird and unexpected interaction.

On Sunday we collected our 5th egg of the week.  It seems like Betty likes to crank one out mid-late afternoon.  We hard boiled two of them to test them out.  They both looked and tasted good which should give us the green light to use the eggs for other cooking and baking needs.

Cindy and I both did a bunch more sets of push ups/pull ups respectively during the afternoon.  I am up to 200 pull ups so far, Cindy has 225 on film.

I tried the dog whistle I bought for Nicki and the Iphone dog whistle app.  Neither one seemed to illicit any reaction from her.  The only thing that seems to get her attention is very loud noise like aggressive clapping or thunder.  Her vision is impaired as well since her nearly incessant rubbing of her eyes has pulled her eyelids down.  To see stuff she needs to cock her head upwards.  It’s depressing watching the little puppy you knew 12 years ago transform into an old girl with all of these ailments.  I still feel guilt that Nicki’s health problems came on very quickly and drastically once I got separated.  Up until that point she was pretty much fine except for her lifelong itchy ears.

So yesterday Cindy told me that we now have our first homegrown egg, very exciting news indeed. The egg was on the smallish side but otherwise appeared perfectly normal. We are 99% sure the egg was produced by Betty, the hen that has had all the classic symptoms of being ready to start producing.  On Monday she was up in the nesting box making all sorts of odd noises we never heard before.  I imagine producing your first egg is a confusing/painful thing for a young chicken.  It seems like Wilma is starting to exhibit some similar behaviors so maybe she will be next in line.

We don’t have immediate plans to consume the egg but when we do we think we will hard boil it to allow us to cut the egg open to see how normal the interior of it looks.

Last night we had the chickens roaming about as I was doing my second session of pull ups in my 1000 pull up video series.  We had a hard time getting Pebbles back in the coop, the other two chickens responded easily to cracked corn bribery.  I had the camera rolling as we coaxed her back in.

So Cindy and I have been seriously considering getting a couple chickens for the homestead, yes chickens.  The idea first floated through our heads when we were looking at chickens at the county fair.  Recently the idea came up again and we have been actually investigating various housing options for the birds.

So why in the world would we want chickens you may ask?  Well having chickens means eggs, something that I use for breakfast every morning and something Cindy uses quite regularly with her baking projects.  Plus you can’t get any more organic or free range than harvesting eggs from your backyard.

Chickens love to eat bugs.  My backyard has an infinite supply.  The chickens could be great natural pest control.  The chicken droppings also would be great to throw in the compost bins to eventually be mixed into the garden soil.

Finally, Cindy and I both love animals, taking care of chickens sounds like fun, at least from this vantage point.

My neighbors across the street had chickens and they do not recommend it, saying it was a lot of work.  However I really don’t think it is the type of labor that would seem like much to us.  Plus we are only talking about getting 2-3 chickens, not a dozen. Another potential issue is noise, I have personal experience with how loud and annoying (and mean) a roster can be.  There will be no rosters in our collection to address the noise issue and to make sure there aren’t additional chicks joining the flock.

As far as housing goes, there is a surprising collection of chicken coops out there suitable for a small collection of chickens.  Ideally we would have a main coop with an attached, enclosed run area, larger than what is pictured above.  The structure would need to be light enough that Cindy and I could periodically move it around the yard.  When we are home I would let the chickens roam around freely in the back yard during the day but we would need to make sure they are safely back in the coop at night.

Predators are a concern.  The neighbors had a bobcat kill a couple of their chickens.  We also have hawks that frequent my yard on a pretty regular basis.  Hopefully the chickens are smart enough to utilize their coop as a safe house if need be.  I’m also worried about bastard fire ants attacking the chickens.

My life as a chicken farmer is not etched in stone yet but I think there is a pretty solid chance it will happen.

Ali finally got the final approval on her mortgage and will be closing today.  She will be wasting no time and is moving her stuff which has been residing in the back of a moving truck for the last 6 days, into her new place tonight.  I will be heading over right after work to help get the big stuff safely off the truck and in place.

On the way home last night I picked up the dogs for another extended visit as Ali is heading up to PA for Easter.  As soon as I got in the door Nicki was acting like she was hungry for supper.  Since the cortisone shot her appetite has really spiked.  Both of the girls were happy to be out at the homestead and happy when Cindy pulled in the driveway.  Cindy rolls around and plays with them more than I do.

I missed my lunchtime gym visit so I got in a quick mini-workout consisting of 5 sets of pull ups and push ups.

So here I am a week after returning to work since my week long GI ailment.  I feel better but not “normal”.  Specifically things in the bathroom are still not as they were before this mess began.  I never got any sort of feedback from the doctor office from the various labs that were sent out, including the test involving one of the grossest experiences of my life.  I left a message today to try to get an update.

This weekend promises to be a busy one.  I would like to get two healthy fruit trees to replace the two unhealthy ones I pulled.  I may get some other stuff to for other outside renovations.  A trip to the movies is planned for Saturday night and some sort of endurance training needs to go down on Sunday. I still need to find the time and motivation to replace the front disc brakes on the Tacoma.  It won’t happen this weekend.

Sunday also just happens to be Easter.  Mom is going to come out after work (yes she has to work on Easter) to enjoy what is sure to be a delicious meal prepared by Cindy.  It will be an opportunity for mom to see the dogs and see the house since Cindy moved in, including the vastly upgraded guest room amenities.

Last night was on the quiet side.  Cindy was out to dinner with her daughter and Alfred so I had a nice night at home with the girls.  One of the things I did was my first indoor flight with the Phantom, I wanted to see how it’s stability would translate indoors.  The answer was, very well. I had no issue keeping the copter under control with one hand while shooting video with the other.  It would drift around a bit due to poor GPS signal but it was very easy to keep it safe from any potential impact objects, despite it’s size.

The pets were not at all happy with my indoor flight session. The Phantom is loud and pushes large amounts of air around.  Tuki hid behind the stand on the top of his cage, Sadie stayed put in the dining room and Nicki retired to the quieter bedroom.  It was fun hovering the Phantom indoors but obviously it is much better suited for outdoor flight where it has room to spread it’s wings (propellers) .

I ordered a prop balancer for the copter.  Evidently pretty much every prop you buy will be slightly unbalanced.  This causes slight vibration which can show up in aerial video.  In order to balance a prop you mount it on the balancer, turn it so it is parallel to the table and release it.  If it falls to one side or the other that is the heavy side.  You take sandpaper and sand the heavy side slightly and repeat until the prop stays perfectly balanced.  It sounds potentially tedious but everything I have read says it is one of things you really should do.

Ali flies home this afternoon.  I will be returning the dogs to her place after work.  It seems like the girls have been with me for a long time, so long that it almost felt like I was transported back to the days where the dogs lived at the house full time.

I have been fortunate to be able to accommodate them being at the house during weekdays between the kindness of my neighbor who let them out for me several days, and Cindy, who reappropriated vacation time so she could make sure the girls were taken care of.

Both of the dogs seem to have positive results from their longest uninterrupted house stay since the split.  Sadie, who has been getting increasingly chunkified has definitely lost some weight with her nearly unlimited access to the backyard, allowing her to run off some chub. Nicki’s energy level and mobility are noticeably better as well.  Watching her be able to do more than just plod along slowly has been great.  Watching her run a little bit around the shed the other day was one of highlights of the new year so far. Waking up tomorrow without them will feel weird for sure.

I am mired in a very bad losing streak in Hearthstone, which continued last night.  Strategies that were consistently working for me no longer do.  Looks like it’s time to reevaluate.

Last night I stopped at Staples to look at 9×12 envelopes.  We are planning to use these envelopes as packets to hold all of the race information for runners at this years half marathon.  Well I really didnt look into what these envelopes cost ahead of time but when I saw 16 bucks for a pack of 100 I was surprised.  If I multiply that out times 25 to accommodate the roughly 2500 runners we are expecting it added up to a big chunk of change, nearly 500 bucks just for dumb envelopes.

When dealing with a race of this size, even seemingly minor items can add up to significant expenses.  I have Cindy looking at other sources for the envelopes.  I’m hoping to be able to pick them up for less than $10 per 100.

The race size also gets big and ugly when it comes time to produce handouts for the event.  Have you ever tried printing 2500 copies of something? It takes forever, consumes over a carton of paper, a ton of toner and fills whatever area it is being printed in with enough toner dust to give you black lung.

All of this prep I am doing is for a “party” Saturday morning where a number of kind souls will be helping us create these 2500 race packets, stuffing papers, race bibs, timing chips and other accessories into each packet which then will be affixed with a label, which I also created.  This race is the most labor intensive of the year.  I have a long and detailed mental checklist of items I need to make sure I get handled.

So it looks like Ali will finally be getting back home tomorrow afternoon.  It will be weird not having the two black furry faces greeting me when I wake up or get home Friday.

I left work a few minutes early to give me some extra time to cover up sensitive stuff in the landscape.  The forecast lows of around freezing would surely wreak havoc.  Thankfully Cindy was off from work so she could help lay stuff out.  We covered almost everything in the garden which isn’t too hard.  What is hard is trying to protect the banana trees which are ridiculously sensitive to cold.

I have had these trees for at least 6-7 years and never got any fruit from them.  The reason is every time the temps even touch the 30’s the trees get destroyed, wilt back to the ground and then start to grow again.  Well last year winter they survived unscathed so I wanted to do what I could to protect them from the cold last night.

Cindy and I spent close to a half hour trying to wrap the 4 or 5 trees in a cocoon of frost cloth.  After running several strips of the cloth across the top of the trees we finished it off with another piece wrapped around the sides.  The cloth was held in place with a combination of twine and weight plates.  I told Cindy that if the trees get damaged after all of this work I am never going to bother covering them again.

Well when I woke up this morning and saw they thermometer reading 46 degrees I was relieved.  Evidently the forecasters were off 10 degrees or so in their forecast.  It was very windy, making the wind chill feel closer to freezing.  When I looked in the back yard I saw the wind had destroyed all of the work Cindy and I did on the banana trees, the cloth was blown apart.  Good thing it turned out we didn’t need it.

Of course complaining about 46 degrees sounds pretty ridiculous compared to what they are dealing with up north.  My weather magnet showed a temp of 1 degree in Reading this morning.  I heard that schools up there were closed due to the extreme cold, something I don’t recall every happening before.

Ali was supposed to be finally flying home today but her flight was also cancelled due to the brutally cold temps so I don’t know when she will actually be coming back.

This has been the longest Ali has been away from the dogs since we split, over 2 weeks.  The dogs seem to have reacclimated themselves to  being out at the house again.  Nicki in particular seemed to really improve with her extended time at the house.  Not having to deal with 2 flights of stairs definitely has been a good thing.  Last night while we were covering plants she actual ran a bit around the shed, something I haven’t seen her do in damn close to a year I bet.

She also seems more interested in play, indoor and out.  It’s been great seeing her energy level pick up.  When I see her playing I just stand there and smile.

So Saturday it was cold, dreary and rainy pretty much all day.  I decided I was going to use the bad weather as a reason to get a lot of stuff done indoors.  I was a chore whirlwind, knocking out all cleaning, watering, laundry, dusting, vacuuming and any other indoor task that came to mind.  I finished up my marathon chore session late afternoon.  The Eagles didn’t play until 8 so I decided to run out to Target to get a couple things.

Once I was in Target I happened to walk by the remaining Xmas inventory that was marked down a ridiculous 90% to blow stuff out.  I couldn’t help myself but to take a look.  I wound up getting 4 rolls of Xmas wrapping paper for a crazy 25 cents per roll, score.

Well when I walked in the store I didn’t grab a cart since the items I was targeting were small.  Well the addition of 4 rolls of wrapping paper all of a sudden made going cart-less very difficult.  It was made more annoying by my inability to find calendars in the store.  Despite directions from different Target employees, telling me the calendars were in a certain area, I was unable to find them.  Looking for calendars while holding 4 rolls of wrapping paper, fish food, and a card really taxed my patience.  I was shifting my grip strategy every couple minutes.  I eventually gave up my calendar search and figured I could look in World Market a couple doors down.

So I walk in WM and see they do indeed have 2014 calendars AND they are 60% off! Sweet.  The selection wasn’t great but I snagged a Peanuts calendar for the kitchen and a french countryside photo calendar for the office.  So there were two lines open for checkout.  Both of them only had one customer in them but both of the cashiers seemed to be having some sort of complication while checking them out.  I picked the line with the young, mildly attractive girl.  Well, I chose poorly. I literally spent 15 minutes waiting.

The first problem was some stupid candy bar where she couldn’t read the bar code.  She scanned the thing 10 times without success.  She even had the customer try scanning it.  I was wondering why she couldn’t just manually punch in the numbers in the UPC code.  When she called a manager up front to help her, they did just that, punched in the numbers.

Ok great, I thought I was in the clear.  Well then the customer plops down some $10 off coupon.  Well again the coupon had the clerk baffled, she said it scanned ok but it was not applying the discount.  This delay went on forever.  This time the same manager chick came up and this time was unable to fix the issue.  Now if I was the customer I would have said 10 minutes ago, f the coupon, f the candy bar.  Evidently the sugar fix and $10 was really important to them.

Of course I was annoyed and I could have easily jumped into the other cashier line which had started moving.  For some reason I stayed put, thinking to myself it was a good test of patience.  In fact it almost became comical, just how insistent the customer was and how inept the clerk was.  Well the end result of all of this fcking around was the guy did not get his 10 bucks off, the coupon in fine print had an expiration date of 1/1/14.  Lol. When I finally got to check out I assured the girl I didn’t need any candy bars and had no expired coupons to present.

So before the Eagles game I got to take in about the last half of the Chiefs/Colts game.  I was amazed how badly the Chief were destroying the Colts, holding as much as a 38-10 lead in the early 3rd quarter.  I was them amazed as the Chiefs imploded allowing that lead to evaporate, giving the Colts the second largest comeback victory in the history of the NFL.

I had odd feelings as I watched Fat Andy walk off the field dejectedly.  I had seen this scenario play out so many times when he was wearing Midnight Green, big leads blown, shitty time management, team crumbling when the game is on the line, in a weird way I was glad to see it happen to another team instead of my beloved Eagles.  A small part of me felt badly but that part sat quietly in a corner.

So the Eagles game had a lot of hype focusing on the Saints poor performance on the road and their failure to ever win a road playoff game.  There was also talk of playing in the open air of Philly in January but that wasn’t a huge factor.  Temps in the mid-20’s with almost no wind didn’t really put a huge cramp in the Saints game plan.

The game was closely contested where a few key plays could have made a large difference.  I have to question Chip Kelly’s apparent like of going on it on 4th and short when the offense has proven repeatedly they aren’t good at it.  McCoy may be the leagues best rusher this year but must have short yardage plays are not his thing.  Conversely, the Saints DESTROYED the Eagles in short yardage.  Drew Brees did a number of QB sneaks where the entire offensive line steamrolled the Eagles D, getting 3-4 yards when they needed one.

Despite their problems the Eagles actually grabbed the lead with a few minutes to go with a late touchdown.  The first thought that went through my head was there is too much time left.  The special teams then fell on their face, allowing a big return punctuated with a horse collar tackle penalty that gave the Saints a ridiculous starting position of the Eagles 48 yard line, 20 yards from field goal range. To win the game, the Eagles defense had to come up huge with no room to spare.  Well they didn’t, allowing the Saints to move the sticks easily before they kicked a playoff ending field goal as time expired. Damn.

I was disappointed but not crushed by the loss.  It was way better than the way Andy’s Chiefs went down, snatching defeat from the jaws of 99% assured victory.  The Eagles turn around from the halfway point this year had been dramatic, so much so that perhaps I had drank just a little too much Kool Aid, thinking the team actually had a shot to go deeper in the playoffs.

The good news is the team seems to be on the right track now, but make no mistake they still have holes to fill, especially on defense and special teams.  All things considered, year one of the Chip Kelly era is definitely a success.

I did so much on Saturday around the house that Sunday it felt like I tons of time to spare.  We didn’t do our psuedo-normal Sunday bike ride because of a late morning brunch that was scheduled for Cindy’s daughters birthday. (which was later cancelled)  I started off my Sunday slow, playing a bunch of Hearthstone.  I used to start my weekend mornings off with WoW play all the time however if I do it now I almost feel guilty.

The slow start to the day seemed to carry through, it felt like I got little done.

There were things that happened of course.  I installed the slackline that I bought for Cindy for Xmas.  I strung it between two palm trees roughly 50 feet apart.  Obviously a slackline needs to be very tight to support a human beings weight.  I had no idea how to judge if I was exceeding the 85 pounds of torque that is established as the red line in the instructions.

Both Cindy and my initial attempts on the line were very, very short.  The instability of the line felt impossible to overcome.  Cindy was practicing much, much more than I was and did much better.

If you have 12 minutes to spare you can see how day one of slackline training went.

I also got my Phantom up in the air for some more aerial video.  I bought some moon gel, a substance that is used primarily by musicians for vibration dampening.  Well I read it also works well for absorbing vibration associated with aerial video.  My clumsy camera mount looked funny but definitely worked better than my first attempt.  Even without using YouTube stabilization, the video was noticeably less shaky.  Eventually I need to snag myself a used/cheap GoPro to use for aerial footage.  You can see the videos I shot here and here.  On the second video I pointed the camera more forward instead of straight down.

I did manage to rip the dash of the SSR off again to crank down the stereo volume gain.  I think I have found a decent balance point now.

I then got wrapped up in a very frustrating battle with Cindy’s old iPhone and her laptop.  I still had not successfully gotten her music collection pulled off the iPhone.  Itunes would not see the phone and as a result I could not see her music.  Before I knew it it was close to 7PM and Sunday had almost expired.  It felt like I wasted the day, even though I was busy doing various things as depicted here.  I told Cindy my mood almost felt full moonish, even though we are two weeks away from the next cycle.

Tonight I get to do the cold weather scramble.  A huge blast of icy air is coming our way, necessitating the aggravating and often fruitless task of trying to protect the garden and fragile landscape plants.  Thank goodness Cindy is off so she can help me.

The transplanted fish seem to be doing ok in their new surroundings although the pond water is already looking murkier than I recall it being before they moved in.  I went down to get the remaining fish from the foreclosed houses pond but came up empty.  On Saturday a crew was in there cleaning the landscape up, mowing the grass, weed whacking and trimming up plants.

Well one of the things they trimmed was bush that hung over the pond.  They trimmed it hard, leaving the pond wide open.  The water, sitting on top of the shit bottom was actually still and clear and devoid of any fish.  My guess is once it was opened up a hungry bird came in and helped themselves.  I felt like I failed the left over fish a bit, no fish left behind….