Category Pets

Friday night  I was quite busy, wedging in a Sam’s club and Publix stop before getting home to do race prep.  By the time I was done doing everything and loading the truck it was bearing down on 10pm, even with Cindy’s help.  My body did not welcome the return of 4:15 am alarms on a Saturday morning.  I drug myself out of bed anyway and got the show on the road.

This was the third year of this race and more than likely the last year of it as well.  It was only decided to take place less than 2 months ago.  It has never been a very well attended event and this year there was a change of the course that made timing the event incredibly inconvenient.

The finish line, which used to be in the parking lot where pre-race registration is located, was moved almost a half mile away.  The decision to move it did not include thought of the logistical implications of doing so.  Both the start and finish line were moved and both were located in the middle of a street with no AC power available.  Luckily the club has a small generator for these situations, however on Saturday there were complications.

At the finish line we have two major things that require power, the fan motor that keeps our inflatable finish line upright and my equipment which includes a couple laptops and a small laser printer.  We have used the generator to power everything several times in the past.  When I would print, it would tax the generator for a few seconds due to the power a laser printer draws while printing, but it still was able to handle things. For some reason on Saturday, that was no longer the case.

The generator was able to power the finish line arch and that was basically it.  Even just adding in my laptops caused it to sound labored.  When I tried to print the generator nearly shut off from the added current draw.  The power was so poor that the printer wasn’t even able to spit out a page, the output  was just a blur. Great.

So in order to deliver results we had to throw a laptop and the printer in the back seat of a car and drive back over to the registration area where AC power was available.  I threw both things on a table and spit out one set of results instead of the 4 or 5 sets I would normally produce as the race was ongoing.

The course layout was not the only problem.  I had the exact same issues with my timing software that I experienced at the last race where runner finish times were showing up as the time of day instead of their net finish time.  I had reported this issue to the software author and received a patch that supposedly fixed the issue.  I was quite annoyed that it didn’t.  The bug meant that producing accurate finish results was much more of a pain in the ass than normal.

I also had lost the ability to post the finish results to the internet directly, adding to my frustration since I had signs posted around the registration area with a QR code for runners to view live results which was now worthless.  It was caused by yet another bug in the software.

It all added up to a very frustrating first 6 hours of my Saturday morning.

Once  I got home I chewed through the post race work as well as sending a long perturbed email to the timing software author, outlining the latest problems I was experiencing.   Timing races is stressful enough without the timing software throwing random roadblocks in my way.

Although I was sleepy I had stuff yet to do.  After weeding the property and assessing the grounds as too wet to mow, I changed my sweaty shirt and headed out in the SSR.  I haven’t driven the truck any considerable distance in a loong time.  I figured a trip to Home Depot and my mom’s place would be a good opportunity to blow out the pipes.

I was stopping at Home Depot to get a new valve for mom’s toilet.  Her valve stopped shooting anything beyond a trickle of water into the holding tank, making it take 10-15 minutes to refill.  While I was there I also grabbed myself a bad ass contractor quality rake.

When I raked the mulch earlier in the day with my generic, wood handled, pressed on head rake it felt flimsy and ready to pull apart.  This new mega rake should last longer than me.

I miscalculated the SSR cargo bed length, thinking the rake would fit in there when laid out diagonally.    It was not even close to fitting.  The rake wound up riding shotgun in the passenger seat on my way to mom’s.

I got to mom’s place maybe a half hour after she got home from work.  She was very happy that the valve replacement went smoothly and solved her problem. I really liked the type of valve that I put in.  I like it so much that I am thinking I might replace the old arm and float style valve that adorn both of my toilets with this new style. Mom thanked me for my efforts as she can once again use the toilet in her bedroom instead of walking to the other side of the condo.

This was the first time I have driven the SSR since I did the stereo work where I eliminated my double ground that was causing electrical feedback in the audio system.  Well the drive revealed a new issue, the sound to the front speakers was cutting out randomly, like something was loose.  I also noticed that my volume level seemed lower than before.  I resigned myself to having to rip open the dash again once again to track down the loose wire and turn up the gain on one of the modules used for the radio install to give me more volume. Great.  I will make sure to do it this time with the top down and out in the sunshine to make the reassembly process easier.  Warming up the air bag cover makes a big difference.

I even had some time to finish up the build of Tuffwing.  I got the servos glued down, the winglets attached, the motor/prop installed and the electronics in their compartment.  I thought I would be a good idea to do a stationary test of everything once I was done.

I had one hand on the plane, holding it stationary in my lap while my other hand worked the radio.  After verifying the servos were working as expected I hit the throttle.  The powerful brushless motor roared to life but it felt like the thrust was in the wrong direction, all the air was being pushed forward instead of backwards.

I instinctively reached my right hand towards the front of the plane to feel the air.  Well the prop was spinning quite quickly, fast enough that it was nearly invisible.  As I reached I felt the tip of my right ring finger make contact with something.  I glance down at my hand and it is already flowing blood at an alarming pace.  I knew I cut my finger badly.  If you slice a finger, normally the blood will sort of seep out, this was flowing from the gun, meaning it was deep.

I cupped my other hand under the red one to catch the blood as I made my way to the sink.  I rinsed off the blood and then grabbed a paper towel to apply pressure to the wound as I made my way back to the bedroom where my first aid supplies are.  As soon as I removed the paper towel the blood gushed again.  I knew that the cut probably should have stitches but I just did not feel like throwing a big wedge in my day to do so.  I slapped a heavy duty band aid on the cut and wrapped it tight.  I followed it up with wrapping tape around the bandage to further secure the dressing and add additional pressure.  When I was done I could feel my pulse radiating from the tip of my finger, it was not a feeling I enjoyed.

After my do-it-yourself first aid I jumped right back into my plane testing.  I read that I can reverse the motor direction by simply reversing any two of the three wires that are connected to it.  After doing so I cranked the throttle back up, with all body parts out of harms way.  The thrust the beefy high current battery and brushless motor created was very impressive.  If I manage to get the wing in the air it should be a BULLET.  The 80 mph top speed they boast the wing is capable of seems realistic from my bench test.

When I redressed the cut later in the night the bandage and tape was pure red with dried blood.  I am crossing my fingers that this gash will heal on it’s own with diligent bandaging.  The cut is about an inch long and I would not be surprised if it is to the bone deep.

Sunday was my second 4:15 am alarm of the weekend, this time to get up to go to the Marco Island triathlon.  Cindy was competing in the race and I had offered to help our equipment manager set up and tear down for the race.  It was my first time attending the Marco tri.  The hotel that was used to host the event was beautiful as was the beach area behind it where the race was stationed.

Lugging equipment around with my sliced finger wasn’t ideal but the substantial bandaging I had on it at least kept the cut protected.  I just used the other 4 fingers when the right hand was needed.  Setting up the equipment went well.  We had it all ready to go early enough that I was able to walk over to see all of waves of the race start including Cindy’s which was the last wave to go, 12 minutes after the first athletes.

I saw Cindy a few times during her race like when she came out of the swim, the bike to run transition, and as she came back in towards the finish line.  She initially was disappointed in her finish time of 1:27:19, saying she really was slow on the swim due to getting dunked by others swimming over her. In reality her swim was the same speed as last year, even with her problems yesterday.

She felt much better when we looked at the official results, she got second in her age group and was only a minute away from the number one spot.  Her bike and run was strong, making up for whatever issues she had during the swim.  It was the best finish she has ever had at a triathlon.

We were there until the very end helping to rip back down all of the stuff we put up several hours earlier.  By that time the sun was high in the sky and I felt it beating on me, making shade  a very welcome commodity.  We didn’t pull out of there till almost 11:30.  On the way home I stopped in to pick up the girls for an impromptu sleep over.  By the time the van pulled back into the driveway it was firmly early afternoon, around 1PM.

I was REALLY tired, so tired that I passed out for a much needed nap mid-afternoon before waking up to watch the Eagles-Broncos game.

Now I went into this game already chalking it up as a loss.  The Broncos offense has been prolific and the Eagles defense has been dreadful which I was sure would add up to a beating.  I just didn’t realize it would be THAT bad of a beating. 52-20, ouch.

The Eagles are in for a LOOOOONG season if they can’t find a way to turn their defensive roster into something resembling a NFL defense.  They are just awful, unable to do much beyond giving opposing punters the day off week in and week out.  Their secondary which is now filled with a bunch of no names can’t stop anyone, the pass rush is very inconsistent and their run defense is nearly as porous.

The Eagles fast paced offense didn’t seem to bother the Broncos much. They turned around and did the same thing to the Eagles, using a hurry up style for nearly the entire game except when the game reached blowout status and they were eating clock.  The game got bad enough that at the end of the third quarter Fox switched to another game, the hated Cowboys no less.

I find it hard to believe that Chip Kelly, despite his focus on the offensive side of the ball, could have ignored the defense this much.  Yea, I already assumed this year was going to be the rebuilding variety but if that means I have to watch this type of performance week in and week out I am going to need to find other ways to entertain myself on Sunday afternoons.

Sunday night we watched Dredd, the rework of the old Stallone classic, Judge Dredd.  The movie utilized the latest technology to create a visually impressive background for the film.  It used the technology to do things like show heads being blown apart in super slo-mo.  Is that really necessary?  I also found it extremely odd that you NEVER see the face of the guy that plays Judge Dredd, his helmet remains in place every second.  I am not sure if this is because the guy that played Dredd is not a well known actor or maybe had some zits on his forehead he didn’t want the public to see.  Whatever the reason, I thought it was odd.

So anyway, to me the movie was an overly gory, everyone dies but the good guys film that I just didn’t care about at the end.  I’d give it a B-.

I had a busy morning already.  I had to prepare the dogs breakfast, drop them off at Ali’s place and gas up the van before getting to work.  The rest of the week appears to be lined up to follow the same, too much to do format.

I am hoping to take in the series finale of Breaking Bad tonight.  I want to make sure I am fully awake to soak in every tragically brilliant moment of it.

I was pissed off that I drove home in an off and on downpour, dirtying Ali’s Volt that I spent considerable time cleaning over the weekend.  When I got out to the house it was not raining at the moment.  I figured I would take the opportunity to pull out my Absorber to wipe the Volt down so it still looked good.  Yes, I’m weird.

I wound up spending most of my night futzing around with some technical challenges instead of digging into my new Blade MQX which showed up.  The first challenge was race timing related.  I have been testing a new version of my timing software and trying to test out some new features.  It has been a bit frustrating as bugs are uncovered.

I then wanted to work on getting my tech set up for the FF draft party I am hosting Thursday night.  I normally hook up a laptop to the 73 inch tv and run Skype on it to connect remote owners to the draft virtually.  Last year I used my work laptop to do this which has a HDMI output.  The picture quality was much better with this type of connection but it was buggy.  My 7 year old TV does not play nice with the HDMI output from the laptop, the picture will pop off occasionally and there is a lot of noise that comes across the audio channel.

I futzed around with it a bit to see if I could resolve the issues with the HDMI connection, even downloading a new video driver which actually made things worse.  It was annoying.

I decided I would be happier with lower quality video if it wasn’t snapping and popping all the time.  I grabbed one of the race laptops which I have used in the past and connected it to the TV via it’s low tech S-video output.  Yes the picture on the TV now looked like I was watching an old VCR tape but at least it didn’t sound like a bowl of Rice Krispies are coming through the sound system.

While I was futzing around behind the tv making the connections it turned off.  When I tried to turn it on I had problems.  Instead of hearing the rotating mirrors spin up like normal I instead heard a repetitive clicking noise, like something was stuck.  The red FAULT led came on.  I think I said out loud, FCK!  I had ideas of having to rush out and go spend money on a new big screen tv.

Turning the set off and back on did not clear the error.  Turning off the surge protector the tv is attached to did not fix the problem.  The only way I managed to get the tv to breathe again was by physically unplugging it for about 30 seconds and then plugging it back in.  I have had this happen a few times before.  I am sure it is only a matter of time until I can longer resuscitate the set.  A new tv, oh how horrible it would be to have to buy one, not. 🙂

So anyway, by the time I was done screwing with everything it was was after 10PM.  Despite the time of night, I was committed to watch Breaking Bad after my shower.  Unfortunately I was so damn tired I kept drifting in and out.  I can’t tell you very clearly what happened during the second half of the show.  It was quarter to midnight when I finally closed my eyes for good with Sadie snuggling by my side.

So I made some adjustments in my attempts to entice Nicki into eating more.  I first took the mat which is normally in front of the door leading to the garage and put it in front of Nicki’s food stand.  This gave her a softer and slip-free place to stand while eating.

When I prepared her chicken I took more care, cutting it into smaller pieces and removing the skin.  Nicki seems to appreciate when I get the cutting board out.  And then when I was done with the prep instead of calling Nicki over, I yelled, “Sadie!, Dinner is ready!””  When Nicki saw Sadie coming over to her food dish, jealousy spurred her into action.  She cleaned her mostly chicken filled meal plate.

This morning I thought I was going to strike out with feeding Nicki.  When I started making her food, right after I let them out first thing, Nicki went back to the bedroom to sleep.  I decided I would halt her meal prep and make it after I ate breakfast.  My sleep cycle is much different than Ali’s, Nicki is used to starting her day later now.

So after I did my breakfast dishes I resumed dog breakfast prep with Nicki still back in the bedroom.  When I completed it I tapped the spatula used to mix her stuff on the bowl, one audio cue she normally responds to.  However again, she did not come out until I said “Sadie! Come get your breakfast!”  Nicki came out shortly and cleaned her plate.

It’s funny having to use psychological tricks on your dog to get her to eat but at this point I’ll do a full song and dance routine if it gets the job done.

I am going right from dog sitting the girls to dog sitting my buddy’s dog, Lucky, starting Thursday.  I have had Lucky out at the house a couple times before, he is a lot of fun.  I am looking forward to bringing the girls out to the house to play with him over the weekend.  Sadie and Lucky have a real blast playing together.