Category Rants

The headlines have been filled with the protests and rioting going on as a result of the grand jury decision to not indict the white police officer involved in shooting and killing a black suspect.  To be quite honest I have only skimmed over the details of the shooting and is often the case, there are loud voices on both sides of the situation.

A very simplistic view of this, which is all too many people require, is white officer shot black man, it must be racially motivated.  However if you read the officers account, Brown attacked the officer when the officer recognized Brown as a potential store robbery subject which was just called in.  According to Wilson’s account Brown actually grabbed the officers hand that was holding his gun, said “You are too much of a pussy to shot me” and turned it back towards Wilson.  Brown was a huge man at 6’4″ and almost 300 pounds and obviously could physically overpower a normal sized man.

During the wrestling for the gun it went off, shooting Brown in the hand which sent him running. Wilson got out, told Brown to stop which he supposedly did however according to Wilson, Brown then charged the officer and was shot repeatedly as he advanced.

One of Browns friends that was there disputes this claim, saying Brown never charged and in fact was saying he didn’t have a gun, yet he was still shot.  There were also stories of how Brown was known as a “big teddy bear” to help build additional outrage among the lightly informed.  I saw the security video of Brown robbing and assaulting the store owner.  That was no teddy bear, it was pure thug, regardless of his skin color, age, nationality or religious beliefs.

I think it is really sad that misinformation is allowed to spread, fester and infest the masses, creating a lemming mentality.  Brown’s stepfather uttering the words “Burn this bitch down..” in reaction to the announcement of the grand jury decision just further outlined the mindset involved in these riots.

I watched video of people running into and out of a broken window of a store front grabbing whatever they could, and felt utter disgust.  Do you think these people really gave a shit that a black man that acted aggressively towards police after indisputably committing robbery was shot and killed?  As they grabbed electronics, food or other merchandise was it supposed to be a tribute to Brown? I destroy and steal in honor of your name! It’s fcking insanity.

Now of course I wasn’t there and neither were you so all I can do is draw conclusions from the information presented.  To me the likelihood that Wilson, who states he NEVER has had to fire his weapon before, decided to go trigger happy without good reason is highly unlikely.  You don’t fire that many rounds at someone unless you are fearful for your life.  Unfortunately logic is something that is a vastly underused resource when much of the public is forming opinions.

I wish the the human race could all develop color blindness.

I am in the midst of the Thanksgiving race grind which I will not emerge from until around 9:30 tomorrow morning.  After that I can take a deep breath followed by a sigh of relief before enjoying the remainder of my 4 day weekend.

So this morning the alarm went off at it’s normal 5:30 AM time and thanks to Cindy’s assumption of most of my former weekday morning duties, I was out the door well before 7AM, arriving at work by 7:30, even with stopping for a DD coffee en route.  My boss got in the office closer to 8AM.  As she walked by my office she gave me a strange look and said “You’re here??”  I said yep, been here since 7:30.

The confused look remained on her face as she said “Aren’t you supposed to be having AC work done this morning?”  All of a sudden it is my face that gets the confused expression as I blurt out “Oh shit, you are right, I have to leave!”, which I immediately did.  You see, earlier in the week I made arrangements to have routine maintenance done on my AC system at 8:30 AM.  I could not believe it totally slipped my mind.

So I grabbed my keys, wallet, phone and coffee and reversed the 23 mile trip I just made a half hour earlier, chastising myself internally for forgetting.  To combat elderly forgetfulness I usually use Outlook calendar reminders which are synched to my phone which I did for this appointment as well.  Unfortunately I didn’t do the one extra click to remind me further in advance than the 15 minute default setting.

I hauled ass, hoping the service guy would be late, as almost all service people are in SW Florida.  He actually was early, the company that does my AC work is one of the few I have dealt with in Florida that actually gets it and places an importance on prompt and professional service.  So in a short while I get to make my second commute of the day back to Naples, lovely.

Speaking of service guys, you may recall me talking about my pool deck that was painted by Rhinoshield in March of 2013.  The deck, which had a supposed two year warranty started having spots of paint come off only a few months after the work was done and has been continuing to “freckle” more and more as time has gone on.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of four or five months ago I began the process of trying to get Rhinoshield to honor their warranty and fix the paint work.  At first I contacted the guy who lives in Miami that did the work originally and got no response. After repeated, unanswered text messages and voice mails I contacted the regional Rhinoshield main office in Jacksonville.  I was told that the Miami guy would be the one to handle it and they would reach out to him.  Well that kick in the ass appeared to work as he finally got back to me.

Eventually I got him to come out and look at the deck.  His original intent was to just touch up the spots but I stressed that there are far too many to be touched up, the deck really needs to be repainted.  Eventually he agreed and said we would set something up once rainy season ends.

Since that time I have been trying to nail down a time for this to occur.  The last time I heard from the guy was October 28th when he texted that he would get back to me in a “couple days” to set up a date to do the work.  Since then I have sent 6 texts and one voicemail asking for this to actually happen and have received no acknowledgement or response.  The last text I sent let the guy know that my next contact would be with the Jacksonville office and even that information did not illicit a response.

So of course I will follow through and give somebody at the main office an earful about how poorly the communication has been with their south Florida guy and if they are not willing to do something to get my warranty on the paint work honored I will need to elevate my complaint to higher levels.  It is SO annoying.  Just do what the fck you say you are going to do, how hard is it?

I have started working on a face for the side race timing venture I have started with my purchase of the Ipico box.  If you want to see the beginning framework head on over here although it is still in the very formative stages. Pretty much everything is still subject to change. www.greenmachinetiming.com

This weekend I take one last deep breath before I am submerged with the mountain of work associated with what is looking to be a 3000 person Thanksgiving Day race.

Cindy and I drug ourselves out of bed Saturday morning with the 4AM alarm to head to downtown Naples for the 10K race I was timing.  As is nearly always the case Cindy and I were the first ones on site which I actually like.  There is something peaceful about moving about the world at a time when most others are sound asleep.  By the time the next person showed up Cindy and I had already dropped off the start line equipment and had most of the other stuff in the van unloaded.

This was a first year event and sign ups were on the light side, light enough that I told Ali she could skip her normal data entry responsibilities.  Cindy helped me handle the walk up data entry.  The pre-race scene went smoothly, the last time we had a race at this venue in May it was a mess as nobody remembered to order port-o-potties.  Thankfully we had four of them on site Saturday.

Everything from my side of the race went well but there was one major problem that was rather embarrassing.  The race course was marked incorrectly, resulting in runners completing a 5.70 mile course instead of the full 10K distance of 6.24 miles.  Runner after runner crossed the line with looks of confusion/frustration on their face knowing that their finish time was impossible if they ran a full 10K.  Personally, I didn’t freak out about it, it wasn’t my responsibility although it made the club look unprofessional and unprepared, something that you just don’t expect from an organization that puts on as many races as we do.

Since this was a new race it meant it was also a new course.  Even though the people setting up the course had course maps in hand, they evidently were not looked at closely enough.  I felt bad for the runners as I know how would I feel if I ran a short course.  Other than the course shortcomings, the event went fine, the race shirts were nice, people liked the award podiums/back drop and we got offsite by 9:30 which is good for a 10K race.

When we got home, while I worked on post race data needs Cindy got busy working on other to do’s around the house. When I finished up I helped her outside while the chickens mulled about.  Mid-afternoon we did a Home Depot/Rural King/Dunkin Donuts trip which was logistically sort of inefficient since we were going back the same direction a few hours later to go see Interstellar.

We expected the movie to be decently full, even at Coconut Point.  After all snowbird season has sort of started again and the movie was really being promoted.  Surprisingly the huge theater we were in was very sparsely populated.  That fact made it very annoying that a group of loud younger people decided to take root within 10 feet of us.  Once the movie started the talking died down but one girl in particular had her feet up on the chair in front of her (our row).  Periodically she would start shaking/bouncing her legs which would send tremors down the row of connected seats.  I sent two or three stink eye warning shots to try to curb the behavior.

The movie was long, very long, clicking in damn close to three hours in length.  For 85% of the movie I was totally on board, it was meaningful, visually epic, and cool.  However as the movie entered the home stretch things started to get a bit too weird/far fetched for my tastes.  (ever see 2001 Space Odyssey?) Of course I won’t go into detail but I am curious if others felt the same way as I did.  Even with the clunky finish I liked the rest of the movie enough to squeeze it into an A- rating.

On Sunday morning Cindy and I had talked about ambitious plans to do a bike/run/bike brick.  Those plans vanished when we slept in until an incredibly late (for us) 8:45 AM and awoke to a cold, wet drizzle outside.  The nasty weather lasted all day with rain of varying intensity and temps not escaping the 60’s.   Other than one small coffee/store run, Cindy and I spent most of the day inside.

I actually sort of enjoyed having to be forced indoors.  Other than a few must do tasks both Cindy and I did whatever we felt like doing independently.  For me that meant mostly playing some WoW while watching Blizzcon footage via my virtual ticket.  Blizzcon is a a conference held by Blizzard, the company that makes all the games I currently play including Hearthstone, World of Warcraft and Diablo.  It is a geekfest to the max.  The virtual ticket allows you to see EVERYTHING that went on if you chose to do so.  In my case I cherry picked stuff that interested me.  I still have a ton more of things I’d like to check out, luckily they give virtual ticket subscribers two weeks after the event to view the content.

For Cindy she liked using the indoor time to do stuff like organize, clean up and spend time in the kitchen preparing more of her stellar meals and deserts.

I have had a home equity loan on my house for almost 10 years.  I had received a letter from my credit union a month or so ago informing me that if I did not “renew” the loan I would no longer be able to take out money against it.  Evidently after 10 years this is a requirement.  My HELOC has been a nice thing to have over the last decade, allowing me to get access to money on demand without having to secure a new loan.  It has been used to build the pool, replace the ac system in the house, buy vehicles, and several other big ticket items over the years.  The idea of having that convenience taken away seemed inconvenient, enough so that I began the process of renewing the loan.  Well part of this would require me paying closing costs again as well as the cost of an appraisal.  Depending on the type of appraisal required the costs could approach $1000.   Even so, I was still considering doing it.

Well last week I described the scenario to Jeremy and asked him what he would do.  He felt like the closing costs were prohibitive considering the amount of money I would be getting access to.  I was already leaning this way but having Jeremy reaffirm that position cemented it.  In fact if anything I started getting angry at myself for even considering this in the first place.  I have a stellar credit score and have the numbers to be qualified as a great credit risk within any financial institutions guidelines.  Why in the world should I pay the credit union a dime for the privilege of loaning me money?  If I need money for something I am sure I will have no issue finding someone willing to loan it to me at a low rate, fck the CU.

This is an odd week.  I work today but am off tomorrow for Veterans Day before resuming the work week on Wednesday.  I don’t have definitive plans for Tuesday but I plan to exclusively do things that I want to do.

Oh yea, we watched Sex Tape last night.  I slept through a lot of it.  I’ll give it a B rating just because you get to see Cameron Diaz’s bare ass.

So this quick rant is about my good buddies at IX Web Hosting.  No, I have not taken the initiative to tackle the monster task of migrating all of my content/sites to some other host so in the end, shame on me. But let’s not let that get in the way of a good rant.

So I get one of those delightful TOS violation emails this morning from IX.  Every time I have received one of these, and there have been quite a few, it has to do with something on one of my sites consuming too many CPU cycles.  I was surprised but no less annoyed to see that my violation was of a different nature this time.  They said that I was consuming too much disk space.  Between all of my domains a total of 31 gigs of space was being utilized.

The email said, among other things, ” if you do not reduce the disk space used in your account to the requested levels within 7 days of this notice, your account will be suspended and content will be deleted soon after. If you receive another ticket for a disk space usage, we will have to take further action and may permanently suspend service to your account to prevent further disruption to other customers on the server.”

Well I felt two things after reading this email, surprise and anger.  I was surprised I would have 31 gig of data up there,  but even if I did, the plan I signed up for boasted that I had UNLIMITED disk space available to me.  I responded back very simply with “My hosting plan was sold with “unlimited storage space” why is this not being honored?”

In the meantime I did some digging around and found the source of bloat, a back up plug in I used for the Bar-barians web site which was dumping the back up files inside the server.  Deleting them immediately relinquished 24 gig of space but still, I was pissed off on principal alone.

IX has had so many blunders, missteps, and epic fails over the last 5-6 years I just have no patience for even the tiniest amount of bullshit when it comes from them.  So, when I received back my reply to my reply I was even more annoyed. “Please keep your account disc space usage below 30 GB in order to avoid same issue in future.
I understand your disappointed at this case but please note that by “unlimited” word we mean that we do not set a hard limit to how much space you can use. However, your account is still a shared hosting account, and you have to share resources with other customers on the server. While we normally allow customers to use as much as they need, we do have to take action when a customer’s usage becomes disruptive to others on the server.”

What the fck is that supposed to mean?  So “unlimited” means no hard limit is set, and you can have as much space as you need, as long as it isn’t too much. Have a nice day.

So I sent pack one more reply to “Prakash” who must be a member of that stellar India based help desk IX migrated to several months back.  ” I understand you are not based in the USA but UNLIMITED means unlimited, as in no limits, as in no hard limits. It seems that IX is not providing the services that it advertises.”

Of course this is just one of the many, many reasons I should drop IX webhosting.  I WILL do it, I just need to have a large block of time to make it all happen.

Yesterday I headed back to the local Wells Fargo branch to try to get another wrinkle in my mom’s estate ironed out.  In the last week I received two refund checks in my mom’s name.  One was for her auto insurance policy and the other was from her Medicare supplement, neither check was for a large amount of money.  My hope was since my mom’s bank accounts, which are now closed, were housed at Wells Fargo, that they could possibly still cash the checks for me.  Well I was there for quite a long time but the short answer is no, they could not help me.

I then decided to appeal to the companies that issued the checks instead.  I contacted each of them and asked if the checks could be reissued in my and my siblings name with an OR in between the names so any of us could cash them.  Surprisingly both companies agreed to do so if I jump through some additional hoops.  Of course until I have the checks in hand I am holding my breath.

There are also other large gaps in the settlement of my mom’s estate still open.  The stock certificates she owned have been turned over to Todd who in turn has a personal friend in Wells Fargo trying to get them converted into our ownership so they can be liquidated.  Mom’s IRA account has to be handled uniquely as well.  My naive thinking going in was it could be liquidated in a manner similar to her bank accounts.  Instead the IRA can only be distributed by establishing beneficiary IRA’s for each of us.  Only after these accounts are created can the funds be split among them.  After that it is up to us if we want to leave the money in there or pull it but if we pull it, it gets taxed as regular income.  At this point I am hoping everything is settled by the end of the year but who knows…

So last night Cindy and I watched a lot of election coverage, splitting the time between CNN, Fox News and NBC.  It was interesting seeing the contrast in coverage style between the three networks.  Interesting would not be the adjective I would use to describe the end result of the elections, both in Florida and nationally.   For that I would use words like depressing or disappointing, but certainly not surprising.

Rick Scott secured a second slimy term as governor with a one point victory over Charlie Crist.  To add insult to injury, the amendment to legalize widespread medical marijuana had a majority of voters support it but not the 60% required to make it stick.  On a national level, the trend continued with Republicans gaining a majority in the senate to ensure that outside of executive orders by the president, nothing meaningful is going to happen in Washington for the next two years.  Obviously I am not happy with any of these outcomes but lets analyze them anyway.

In Florida I think the two biggest forces behind the governor vote outcome were money and apathy.  Rick Scott dumped something like $20 million of his personal fortune (after vowing to not use personal funds in this election) into negative advertising during the last two weeks of the campaign.  He flooded every possible media outlet with his awkward, shining cranium slinging two fisted mud non-stop.    Hell my blog had a Rick Scott Google ad running on it yesterday for cripes sake.

Voter apathy on the democratic side was the other culprit in this sad outcome.  Voter turn out in some major democratic areas was reported to be in the 40% range.  Or from a wider angle, Florida’s population is around 19 million people, only 6 million of them cared enough to vote.   Surely better turn out would have resulted in a different outcome.

The medical marijuana defeat is another testament to the power of money to mold the minds of the general public like play doh.  At one point, support of medical marijuana in the past 6 months was polling in the 80%+ area.  Basically everyone thought it made sense.  All it took was 10’s of millions of dollars of carefully targeted and crafted advertising by those that have little moral/social concerns with MM but instead had large financial stakes in defeating it, to derail the movement.

In the big picture, my life does not change significantly no matter who is sitting in the governors office.  For “me firsters”, that is all the further their concern typically extends.  However I have this flaw that causes me to care about the bigger picture, caring about stuff like the environment, equal rights, wealth distribution, and caring for those less fortunate than I am.  I also admire honesty, likability, and composure in a political candidate. Anyone that watched any of the Crist/Scott debates should have seen there was a glaring bald black hole on one side of the stage in those regards.

I am very disappointed in the election results and would categorize it in the same realm as how I felt in 2004, when the worst president in my lifetime somehow managed to get reelected.  However perhaps that experience is what has somewhat dulled my senses with this outcome.  Florida residents have the governor they deserve.

So today is election day where the direction of our state and our country follows for at least the next couple years will be determined.  In Florida there are two big decisions to be made, an amendment permitting widespread medical marijuana use and who is going to be the Florida governor for the next four years.

Medical marijuana to me is a no brainer.  Marijuana/hemp is truly one of nature’s miracle plants.  In addition to it’s mood altering and medicinal applications, hemp can be used to make fabric, food, and even paper.  The biggest opposition to medical marijuana are cigarette and pharmaceutical companies.  They have literally spent  millions upon millions of dollars trying to brainwash the fickle Florida voters into voting against something that could help so many people.

To allow alcohol to be sold at the local grocery store, which by all accounts impairs the same or more than marijuana without any upside is just silly in my opinion.  Unfortunately the public has proven time and again that they are susceptible to fear mongering so it is utilized again and again by political strategists to play mind games with potential voters who are too lazy or apathetic to make their own informed decisions.

Then we have the governors race, a race where I have clearly made my opinions known.  Rick Scott has once again reached deep into his pockets to pepper the media with endless Charlie Crist smear ads.  I laughed out loud when I heard one spot playing on local radio, it was two younger sounding women discussing the governors race.  The discussion basically can be summarized like this.  “Yea Rick Scott is sort of a tool but at least I have a job.  When Charlie Crist was governor I lost my job.  I don’t want to lose my job again so I guess I have to vote for Rick Scott”  It was clearly aimed at light thinkers and the simpletons that basically know nothing about the world around them.

Scott is using the national recession and recovery to influence the public in disingenuous ways.  He likes to throw Florida’s economic woes it suffered along with the rest of the nation  squarely on the back of Charlie, who was the governor during the worst of it.  Likewise, Rick likes to step out in front and claim personal responsibility for Florida’s recovery which again has been a nationwide climb.

Charlie Crist supports common good principals like climate change, gay marriage, medicaid expansion, medical marijuana, higher minimum wages, and more.  Scott does not support these things and prefers to focus on areas that bring the most wealth to his personal fortune and the others that pay him for influence.  How does a man making 160k a year as the Florida governor increase his net worth roughly 60 million dollars in one year (2012) while in office?  You can connect the dots.

Unfortunately once again this election has proven that money is the most important quality of all a candidate can possess.  It is estimated that 3.7 BILLION dollars has been spent on the 2014 elections. That is utterly disgusting.  You can thank the Supreme Court for that.

On a national level, the big drama is if the democrats will also lose the senate majority.  Again it would be disappointing if they did but in the big picture would not significantly change what has already been going on, nothing.  Nothing will change, nothing will get done, and those at the top of our society will be cackling away from their balconies, delirious with joy about just how masterfully they have manipulated this country they call home.  Fck everyone else as long as I get mine…..

On my way home last night I saw a number of vehicles slowing down.  I saw the reason for the deceleration, a live turtle was on the road.  I saw a line of cars about 100 feet behind me and made a command decision to stop dead in my tracks to create a turtle safety barrier and threw on the 4 way flashers.  This was a side road with something like a 35 mph speed limit.  I would have not attempted the same maneuver on a major roadway.  I hopped out of the truck and approached the turtle, what I would categorize as a snapper that was not that big.  He was fully retracted but his shell looked intact which I was glad to see.  I later looked this type of turtle up, it’s actually called a Florida Softshell Turtle and is not a snapper at all, it just bites like one.

So I picked him up and made it to the median before he started thrashing about violently.  He was small enough that his feet could reach my hands that were on either side of his shell.  As he scratched me he was also throwing his head around, trying to find anything he could bite.  It got bad enough that I sat him down but he immediately tried to head back into the roadway so I cut him off.

He again retracted into his shell as I reached down and picked him up again.  As I did I told him to not be stupid, I was trying to help him.  I must speak turtle because this time he remained passive as I carried him to the waterway 75 feet away.    Another successful turtle mission was in the books.

I beat Cindy home last night so I tended to the chickens.  When I was done, instead of getting them back in the coop I told Cindy we should let them run around some more since they love it so much.  I told Cindy I would put them in later.  Well the rest of my evening became consumed with some running club drama that made me totally forget that the chickens were still outside.  In fact I did not remember until Cindy told me when she went out to check on the hens this morning they were waiting at the screen door to greet her.

I felt terrible and couldn’t believe I forgot about them.  I also felt lucky they survived the night intact from predators.  Evidently the chickens did still retreat to their coop overnight based on the chicken poop in there this morning.  Still, it was a big brain fart that can’t happen again.

So anyway like I referenced above there was a lot of drama last night that was running club related.  For quite awhile there have been problems going on that have been treated with band aids instead of stitches.  As a result the wound continues to ooze.  Anyway, last nights drama resulted in me ripping the band aids off and has opened the door to me potentially divorcing myself from the dozens of responsibilities I have carried for the club for approaching 9 years.  The fact that things have been allowed to even get to this point just further illustrates the problem.   I don’t know yet what the ultimate end result will be but the idea of relieving myself of literally tons of work and responsibility sounds pretty appealing.  My sense of responsibility to others not involved in the drama does however weigh on my mind.

I had a very busy evening.  Even though it wasn’t raining there was still a lot of standing water in the yard.  Well I needed to mow anyway.  Mowing on  waterlogged, muddy grass requires a different mowing technique.  When entering an area that still was very wet I had to make sure I was hitting the spot in a straight line and with adequate momentum.  Failure to do either of these things could easily result in the tractor getting stuck in the bog.  You do more sliding  than turning in these sort of conditions.  By the time I was done I was able to knock down the majority of the grass but many spots in the yard looked like a 4 wheeler was let loose to wreak havoc.  Normally I would have just let the grass alone since it was still so wet but since my dad is visiting this weekend I wanted to get it done.

While I was mowing I had the chickens roaming around, they absolutely loved following behind me, harvesting the freshly mowed grass for bugs.  When we first got the chickens they were terrified of the mower and wanted nothing to do with it.  Now in the same manner they have warmed up to Cindy and I, the tractor is now not so scary.  Gaining their trust has been a fun experience.  Seeing how even chickens have personality, curiosity and playfulness makes me so happy that I no longer support the industry responsible for subjecting these animals to such cruelty.

While we were eating dinner we stumbled across the second Florida governor debate.  My dislike of the current Florida governor Rick Scott is well documented. His opponent, Charlie Crist, actually was the governor of Florida as a moderate republican from 2007-2011.  He has since changed his party affiliation to democrat, reenforcing my already favorable opinion of him.

Unfortunately I tuned in after #fangate, which was a great way to illustrate just how much of an a-hole Rick Scott is.  When Charlie Crist does public speaking he prefers to have a small portable fan with him to help keep cool.  In the debate guidelines Charlie even had use of the fan explicitly included.  Well shortly before the debate was about to begin Rick Scott had a shit fit, saying that use of the portable fan was in violation of the “no electronics” provision.  This provision is to prevent candidates from looking at notes/messages on a portable device during a debate as a crutch.  Anyone with half a brain would realize that a fan does not give a candidate an advantage with speaking points.

Well Rick proceeded to act like a child, threatening to not participate in the debate unless the fan was removed.  The debate was actually delayed for 7-8 minutes until someone thankfully talked sense into Scott, realizing that he was looking bad with his temper tantrum over something so insignificant.  The fan stayed despite Scott’s whining.

When the actual question and answers started flowing the difference between the two candidates was staggering.   Scott, in almost a Sarah Palin-like manner had a few go to zingers he relied heavily on, often inappropriately wedged in because he had nothing else to say. I was amazed just how awkward, nervous, and unpolished Scott was on stage.  He spoke too fast and often in broken/incomplete sentences.  His attacks on Crist were clumsy and delivered in such a way that carried no weight.  The biggest tool he had in the box was that Crist was governor when the entire country was in free fall.  Scott tried to make the point that somehow Crist was largely responsible for how the nationwide fiscal crisis affected Florida which is utterly ridiculous.

When Scott was asked questions that were intended to get him to clearly offer an opinion he more often than not talked awkward circles around it.  I found it especially entertaining when he was asked about his opinion on gay marriage and he gave a non-answer, refusing to endorse or condone it.  The debate panelist pressed him, pointing out he did not actually answer the question.  Scott spit out the same non-answer.  It was ridiculous.

In contrast Charlie handled the questions and barbs from Scott intelligently and with little difficulty.  He had no issues giving Scott some strong counter punches, including reaffirming the biggest and incredulous skeleton in Rick’s closet, his management of the company that was whacked with the biggest fine in US history for Medicare fraud and how Tricky Rick pleaded the 5th something like 75 times during the proceedings.  The fact that Scott was able to get elected the first time with this in his background is still astonishing to me but a testament to the ability of lots of money to sway the opinions of the lightly informed masses.

Pretty much ever single issue that was presented to the candidates I found myself aligned with Crist’s position and opposed to Scott.  Of course the appearance and likability between the two candidates is not even close.  Charlie carries himself so much better and is the more likeable candidate by a huge margin.

I was laughing out loud at Scott’s closing remarks which were delivered in the same clumsy manner as the rest of the debate.  He closed with saying something in haitian and spanish in a manner a 6 year old Russian kid would read the Gettysburg address.  It was simply awful and transparent.

Seeing the debate deepened my inner disgust that the governor race is supposedly neck and neck.  Contrasting the two candidates side by side makes it seem impossible to me that Scott is within 10 points of Charlie.  If Scott somehow manages to buy himself into a second term utilizing the financial juggernaut at his command to once again brainwash the sheep it will indeed be a very sad day in the Sunshine State.

After watching the debate I still had more to do.  I needed to get presents wrapped for Cindy’s birthday which is Friday.  After that Cindy and I worked on splitting up 800 race timing bibs into 32 envelopes for the cross country meet I am timing on Saturday.  Thank goodness Cindy helped me.

Last night we finished up season one of The Strain.  Although the show isn’t on the same level as Walking Dead or Breaking Bad I still enjoyed it and look forward to season two.

I talked to my dad and step mom last night.  They left yesterday from western PA on their trek down to Florida.  They are using a less aggressive driving plan, not arriving until Friday.  They made it into North Carolina on day one.  So far the trip seems to be going well.

Today is my sister Torrin’s birthday.  I know it’s a tough day for her since it will be her first one since my mom passed away.  Torrin spoke to mom more often than anyone else and I know her death has been very, very hard for her.  When she came down to Florida we leaned on each other to get through the emotional wringer.  It made me feel closer to Torrin. I hope I can continue to receive and offer her as much support as she needs from now on.

I have had a lot of hurdles to cross since my mom passed away when it comes to the many, many items that have needed to be addressed, not to mention the emotional aspects of it.  Well yesterday was the most frustrating day thus far when it comes to the task of handling my moms estate.

Years ago mom said how she wanted to get my name on her bank accounts as well as give me power of attorney.  Somehow that time never came.  I feel partially responsible for the headaches I now have as a result of this not happening.  I could have pushed mom harder to get it done.

So anyway, yesterday I headed to the same Wells Fargo branch that I have been dealing with trying to get her bank account and IRA liquidated.  It was determined that we could not use an estate account because of the way Summary Administration probate works where there is no executor or personal representative.  Instead there needs to be three checks cut for each account my mom had, splitting each one in a third.  With her bank accounts that adds up to a total of nine checks.  Her IRA, which for some reason can not be handled at the same time, will go through a similar process so in total there will be four checks going to myself and my siblings.  This is a pain in the ass from my perspective since I have been managing things from the start with the assumption that we would be able to split the funds after expenses and costs were taken out.  Now that stuff has to be taken out after the split and returned to me via Todd and Torrin writing a check back to me.

I still do not feel assured that those accounts will be liquidated and split as I was told they would be just based on the way things have gone.  The branch manager was totally clueless on this process and he has gotten some conflicting information from the people he has had on the phone.  I can only hope it is handled quickly and properly.

So while I was dropping off the paperwork to get the bank accounts handled I brought up to the branch manager my mom’s stock assets.  Mom had Sherwin Williams stock that she got as an employee back in the 80’s.  It was a reinvestment account so over the last 30 years what was originally 2 shares had grown into around 60 shares.

I thought I had a simple plan to handle these assets.  I obtained online account access to the stock which just happened to be another Wells Fargo account.  Once the court order was signed I went in and executed a sell order on all of the stock, or so I thought.  When the check showed up the other day it was a little more than a third of the total value of the account, wtf??

I went back online and looked.  There were 32 shares still sitting in there and I was unable to do anything with them.  I later discovered that the reason was those 32 shares were stock certificates, something different than electronic shares.  Well I now I had a whole new set of problems to deal with.  I called up the support number for the account and explained my situation.  Well as soon as I told the rep that I was accessing my deceased mother’s account she immediately told me that she had to disable online access to the account.  I wasn’t pleased but couldn’t really argue otherwise as from a security perspective that would be a red flag.  Luckily I had taken a screen shot of the current account status before my access was revoked.

I continued to outline my dilemma and asked how I would handle it.  She said that the ownership of the stock needs to be transferred via something called a Stock Power Form which she emailed to me.  I had this form with me and presented it to the branch manager for guidance on how to fill it out.  I pointed out a particular section of the form that required a “Medallion Signature Guarantee”, something I never heard of but sounded ominous.  The branch manager again did not know much, but he did know that his branch did not have anyone that possessed this stamp, evidently it is something you have to be qualified for, almost like being a notary.  He did know enough to tell me that a branch about 5 miles away did have staff with this title and that I could go there.  So that’s what I did.

I drove to the next branch and while I was waiting filled out the sections of the form that were straight forward.  After about 15 minutes I was told they could see me.  I presented my form to the bank guy.  He looked it over and said all he would need is my Wells Fargo debit card.  Huh?  I told him I don’t have a Wells Fargo account.  He said that they couldn’t help me, the only way they can do the signature is with a current Wells Fargo account holder.  They said I could open an account but even if I did, I would have to wait TWO MONTHS until they would be allowed to do it.  WTF!!  I told them the branch manager I just talked to did not mention anything about this restriction, he definitely knew I did not already have a WF account.  They shrugged their shoulders and apologized.

They said that I should be able to get the signature at the credit union that I belong to.  This did not compute to me, why would I go to my credit union to get authorization to transfer stock managed by Wells Fargo.  The WF guy assured me that they could do it as this Medallion Signature is more or less a higher level notarization that is required for stock transactions.  Ok fine, I headed to my third financial institution of the day, thank goodness I have an understanding boss.

So I get to the CU and wait for another 20-25 minutes to see someone.  I get waited on by a woman that I have dealt with before on other loan paperwork.  She said she sort of recognizes me.  I explain to her what I needed and why I needed it.  Her initial reaction was tentative, I could tell she didn’t really feel like dealing with it.  She told me she needed certain documentation to consider doing it.  She said it in a way that made me think she thought I didn’t have it with me so she could dismiss my request and move on.  Unfortunately for her I had the death certificate, court order and stock statement, sort of.

She said that the value of the stock needs to be verified and required a current statement.  I told her I had older paper statements with me but not the very latest.  I did have the screen shot of the account status prior to my access being revoked that morning sitting in my Dropbox.  She said I could email it to her bank email address.  My first email to her arrived with a Dropbox link in it.  The CU firewall evidently forbids access to Dropbox so she could not get the file.  Ok, I am resourceful so I instead saved a copy of the screenshot to my phone and emailed it to her as an attachment, twice.  Evidently the CU email system shit cans emails with .jpg attachments.  WTF.

I was getting very aggravated.  The amount of stock in the big picture was very small and the woman could just look at the image on my phone to verify it, but no, she needed a print out.  With my developing understanding that a Medallion Signature is really just another way to confirm the identity of someone I did not understand why this song and dance was being asked of me.  I have been a customer of the CU for going on 15 years, I have all the paperwork that confirms my mom’s death, and the stock transaction I am trying to get done has absolutely nothing to do with the credit union and everything to do with Wells Fargo.  The woman said she could not proceed until she had the stock account print out.

Well my internal gears were still spinning.  I suggested to the woman that if she could give me a personal email address that does not have such restrictive filter.  She was not interested in that option.  I still was not going to give up.  The credit union office is literally next door to one of our branch offices.  I told her I would be back in 10 minutes.  I walked out the door and down to our building.  I hopped on one of the girls computers, accessed my email and printed the fcking stock statement and marched right back into the CU.

I came back into the woman’s office with the stock statement triumphantly in my hand.  She greeted my accomplishment with a “too bad, so sad” tone as she told me that while I was gone she called a “supervisor” and explained the situation.  She said she was told that because the court order has all three of our names on it that they can’t do the stamp.  As you can imagine, I was not pleased.

As I was entering my 3rd hour of fcking around with banks my patience had eroded.  I went on probably a 5 minute rant where I expressed my discontent that the credit union was being so uncooperative in this process.  The woman said that beyond having the three of us present at one time she did not have any advice for me.  I told her that it was ridiculous to offer that as the only viable answer considering the geography of the three parties involved.  As I ranted and ranted she had this look on her face that annoyed me further.  I could tell she was just waiting for me to finish and she wasn’t really listening to my logic.  She didn’t give a fck.

The bottom line was if this woman looked at the situation realistically she could have just stamped my form and sent me on my way, with no issues.  However, in this cover your ass, make decisions based on policies written without allowing for consideration for personal judgement world, she took the easy way out.  It’s always easier to say no.

I left the credit union office fed up to the utmost level.  I called my lawyer that handled the probate.  He said the signature medallion stamp was stupid and shouldn’t even be used anymore.  He also said that the CU rep was out of line denying it but he had no alternative action for me, he can’t force them to stamp it.

I arrived back at the office fuming, hungry and annoyed I had to skip my lunchtime gym session.  I called up the main credit union office to again pitch my case.  I call and explain my situation briefly which got me transferred to a bitchy sounding woman.  I explained my situation a second time.  She offered up a simpleton response saying “I guess she cant do it because of multiple people involved”  When I tried to explain the details of why that answer was not good enough I got a “Please hold” followed by music.  The bitch threw me on hold for close to 5 minutes until a man picked up.

I told him that whomever I just talked to threw me on hold with no explanation and that I thought that was rude and unprofessional.  I asked that if he knew who took the call last that he informs the woman or her supervisor that I did not appreciate it.  I then began my explanation a third time.  Unlike the first two people I spoke to, this guy actually listened to me and understood my frustration that nobody is considering that my brother and sister are out of state and that saying they need to be present was ridiculous.

He put me on hold multiple times while he sent internal communications to a number of people trying to get some traction that we could use to call back the branch I was at and instruct them to provide the stamp on the document.  He really tried hard but ran into the same magical “supervisor” that is more interested in procedures than customer service.  He said officially the answer is still the same but he actually advised me to go to one of the other local credit union branches to see if I deal with a rep that realizes the situation and acts appropriately based on it instead of hiding behind a supervisor on the phone.  It seemed bizarre that this was the official recommendation.

Since then I sent out an email to my brother and sister expressing my frustration and asking if either of them had Wells Fargo bank accounts which MAY make the process more doable.  Todd called me last night and said he did so I am calling back Wells Fargo today to see if we can get away with just him being present to sign the form to transfer the stock ownership.  I am crossing my fingers it is.  I could use some good news.

I didn’t feel like blogging since returning from the trip. Thursday and Friday were of course busy with getting the stars around the house realigned.  Unfortunately almost every day since we have been back has been overcast and raining.  As a result the property is once again a sopping wet mess.  When I mowed I only could do the area right around the house unless I wanted to install pontoons on the tractor.  It was nice to have so much time around the house, I spent almost the entire four days at home base.  I also spent a large amount of that time working on a backlog of running club work.  I bet over the four days I have been back I put five or six hours into it.

Cindy had an appointment with a foot doctor for her injury that has been going on for a couple months now.  He gave her a steroid shot to reduce inflammation.  Unfortunately she had a number of side effects from the shot like itchiness, being overly emotional, and a few other things.  This foot injury is tied into the post office as she originally hurt her foot on the job so it has been handled as a workman’s comp claim.  Well there has been an incredible string of red tape and bullshit associated with this.  Cindy has been yanked around by the PO ever since the incident.  Unfortunately the fact that she is no longer working for them has further complicated things.  It’s a real mess.  If you are considering a career in the Post Office I would highly advise against it.

On Thursday I stopped to see Nicki.  She had her cone removed after 10 days of it protecting her surgically repaired eyelids.  I couldn’t believe the difference.  I had not seen her eyes look normal for over a year.  Her rolled under eyelids and incessant rubbing of her eyes which pulled down the lids had practically blinded her.  She looked so happy.  It was like she had a word balloon over her head saying “I can see! I can see! And no more annoying cone!”

It made me very happy to see her this way and made what we spent to have it done worth every penny.  Hell this was the first time I can EVER recall thinking a vet bill was cheap.  The eyelid surgery was only $500, practically what I paid wasting my time for an hour with the snooty pet allergist at the other place.

I came back from the trip a pound heavier than when I left so I got some cardio sessions in both Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday I did a track 5K at a very pedestrian 9:06 pace.  On Sunday Cindy and I put in 13 miles on our bikes on very wet roads averaging a decent almost 18mph pace.  During both sessions I could tell my fitness level was not where I want it to be.

I did a reconciliation of all of my trip related expenses.  My out of pocket was almost exactly the same as last year’s Grand Canyon trip but the way my money was spent was shifted around.  The most amazing change was our gas expense.  Last year we spent something like $1200 on gas.  This year the Prius sipped only $376 of fuel for the nearly 5000 mile road trip, amazing.

We were happy to see the chickens survived the 11 days without us ok.  Since we left it appears that either the third hen, Pebbles, is starting to lay eggs or one of the others is laying two eggs a day.  We have been getting  three eggs a day more often than not.  We think it is Pebbles though since she is now squatting down when you try to pet her and her crown and ears have gotten much, much redder the last couple weeks.

We have such a backlog of X1 dvr’d shows that we didn’t bother going to the movies Saturday night.  Plus after a road trip, any financial savings we can manage is helpful.  We probably have chewed through at least a dozen hours of content over the 4 days and have at least another dozen to go.

When I got back I had to go through my annual hassle of getting my NFL Sunday ticket working.  I only have Directv for the ticket and have no other regular satellite programming.  This is a configuration you can not call up and get.  It is something they allowed me to do years ago since I was a long time customer.  However for the last 3 or 4 years it has been increasingly difficult to continue my special gig.

When the NFL season ends I put my directv account on a 6 month suspension.  After 6 months it reactivates and I start getting billed for the Sunday ticket.  Well for some reason the Sunday ticket did not automatically renew this year.  I had to spend a good half hour on the phone once again getting things straightened out.  After the woman on the phone got it turned back on she told me that even though they were able to do this for me once again this year, in the future I may be required to have a programming package.  I told her I had been told this many times in the past and my answer is always the same “Would Directv like $400 of my money or $0”   She had no rebuttal for my logic.

Over the four days I finally heard back from the Rhinoshield guy that painted my pool deck.  After paying $1500 to get my deck fixed and painted in March of 2013 with a “two year warranty”, I have had issues.  The first problem was most of the hairline cracks that the guy fixed started to reappear within 3 months of the job.  When I contacted the company they said concrete issues are not part of the warranty, it just covered the paint work itself.  I thought that was sort of lame but ok.

Well over time there have been a bunch of small spots appearing on the deck where the “two coats” of deck paint are coming off.  I ignored it for awhile but since my two year warranty was still in place I started to take action on it a couple months ago.  I left messages for the guy that did the deck work, who lives in Miami, and heard nothing.  I then contacted the parent company in Jacksonville and got assurances that the guy down here would respond.

Finally after a couple more tries I finally got him on the phone.  He told me he was going to call me the day after Labor Day to make arrangements to come out and “fix” it.  Well no call came on that Tuesday, and my follow up call on Wednesday went un-returned as well.  Unfortunately none of this behavior surprised me.  During the original job I had numerous ignored calls, missed appointments and other aggravation.  When they actually did show up to do the work I remember thinking that it seemed like it didn’t take nearly as long as it should if they were doing a good job.  The guy “primed” the deck by himself in less than an hour and when the supposed two coats of paint were applied, the whole thing was done in 2-3 hours.

Well the deck looked good when they were done so I assumed their speed was due to efficiency, not neglect.  Unfortunately it appears the latter is true.  When I did finally get him on the phone he gave me some BS that it is normal to have to do some touch ups over time.  To me, a couple hundred small spots far exceeds normal maintenance.  I think they basically just rushed and did a shitty job.

My premise is backed up by some other indisputable facts.  When the exterior of my house was painted by Rhinoshield five or six years ago, which results I am extremely happy with, part of the job was to paint the front landing of the house.  They use the same process to paint the landing as they do to paint a pool deck.  After all this time, there is NOTHING flaking off that area.  In addition, my next door neighbor had his pool deck painted by Rhinoshield a few months prior to I did.  His deck still looks great, his cracks have not returned and he has none of the “freckling” that I do.  I plan to march the Rhinoshield guy to both spots to make my case that my entire pool deck should be repainted, if he shows up on Wednesday.

I received the replacement wheel ring(s) for the Prius to replace the one I cracked through careless driving on the road trip.  I only needed one but wound up buying 5.  When I tried to buy a single ring I was in the passenger seat on my laptop using a hotspot.  The signal was dropping out and I thought I had not actually completed the transaction so I bought a box of 4 later.  Well both the set of four and the set of one showed up.  I was quite annoyed when I opened up the single ring and saw it was cracked.  Although the seller packed the ring in tons of bubble wrap, she enclosed it in a plastic bag.  The crack was obviously the end result from someone placing something heavy on the bag or even stepping on it.  Grrr.  At least they were cheap.  I was able to replace the damaged ring in all of 60 seconds.

Yesterday’s Eagles game was EPIC and made me so happy that Nick Foles could potentially be our QB for the next decade.  Not only is the guy cool under pressure, accurate, and likeable.  He is tough  too.  He took a hell of a beating in yesterday’s game, the worst of which was a horrible cheap shot by a fat assed Redskins lineman after an incompletion that was first ruled an interception.  Foles was totally blind sided as the 300+ pounder took him off his feet. As soon as I saw it I was screaming obscenities at the tv.  I was glad Jason Peters rushed the lineman and took a swing at him, even if it did get him ejected as well.  Despite all the beatings Foles lead the team to yet another come from behind win, the third of the season.  To put up 37 points with LeSean McCoy having what possibly was the worst day of his career puts an even bigger exclamation point on how good Foles is.

Now it may seem out of place to make any negative commentary after a great win and a 3-0 start but here goes anyway.  The Eagles have been winning mostly in spite of their defense.  Once again yesterday they came up big when they had to but over the course of the season they just need to do a much better job.  In particular they are not getting consistent pressure on opposing teams quarterbacks.  As a result they are giving up yards by the mile through the air.

LeSean McCoy may be one of the best running backs in the NFL but damn it was frustrating watching him trying to run yesterday.  There just appeared to be way too much dancing and not nearly enough moving forward.  I think his yards per carry average yesterday was 1, beyond horrible.  They need to either get him hitting holes more directly or find a way to get him the ball more out in open space where his elusiveness is more effective.

Finally, I am worried about injuries, especially on the offensive line.  After Peters was ejected they had NO reserve lineman left.  The rag tag line is surely part of the reason Foles got pummeled so badly.  I can only hope they get some guys back healthy soon.  Even with these negatives, as a whole the team has shown some amazing resilience so far this year and I am looking more forward to this season than any in recent memory.

Oh and I have to say I was incredibly disappointed to see that cocky, take every other play off, punk DeSean Jackson get an 80 yard td reception.  Throughout the entire game he was trash talking and being an asshole, his specialty.  It made getting the win in the end even more satisfying.  Fck you DeSean. I’m glad the fans booed you all game long.

I had a very aggravating day in Fantasy football.  I had a small lead that looked secure .  My opponent had Marshawn Lynch and Percy Harvin on the Seahwawks.  If time expired normally I was going to win.  Well leave it to Peyton Manning to prolong the game by driving the length of the field in 41 seconds AND completing a two point conversion to extend the game.  With the extra overtime period both Lynch and Harvin were able to accumulate additional points.  When Lynch scored the game winning touchdown it resulted in a tie score in my game.  I believe the tie breaker in our league is bench points which I had less of.  Losing a game in this manner was maddening, especially considering I may also have the high point total of the week in the league.

I was very sad last to night to hear that Eric the Actor, a long time “whack packer” on the Stern show had died.  Eric was a dwarf with a lot of physical problems, him making it to the age of 39 actually exceeded doctor’s predictions.  If you aren’t a Stern fan this news means nothing to you but if you are, whether you loved or hated Eric’s calls into the show, you are feeling some of the same sorrow I am.

If it seems this blog has been filled with a lot of ranting, that is because it is.  I have one final story, an appropriately irritating way to start my return to work.  My normal route to work was backlogged horribly by presumably an accident.  I and many others wound up taking an obtuse shortcut to get around it, basically we went 5 or 6 miles out of the way to progress a mile in a straight line.

Well this detour was on two way streets, the first one had a speed limit of 25 mph and another had a speed limit of 45 mph.  As I mentioned, there were several dozen cars all in single file making this same detour.  Well when got on the 45 mph road I felt no urgency to go very fast since there was a line of cars way ahead of me.  I may have been going only 40 mph when I Cadillac whipped out into the other lane and flew by me with his hand and middle finger outstretched the driver side window.  Apparently he was enraged I was not very close to the vehicle in front of me.   He passed both me and the vehicle behind me, gaining exactly two car lengths before he became ensnared again in the single file traffic.

Now of course this instantly enraged me.  Sure, if I was going less than the speed limit on an open road I can understand his frustration although I still would not tolerate the one finger salute. But to do it where you had no tangible benefit by passing was ludicrous.  So of course I did whatever any logical male would, I accelerated and got behind him.  The Cadillac had very dark tinted windows, something I find to be very common with asshole drivers.  They somehow think that window tint makes them immune to retribution.  The dark tint made it impossible to see if he was looking in his rear view mirror but surely he had to.

Finally we returned to the normal route and approached an intersection with multiple lanes.  The Cadillac stayed in the middle lane.  I saw less cars in the right lane so it was opportunity to return the favor.  I saw he had his passenger side window rolled down partially.  As I rolled by I saw what appeared to be a bearded guy perhaps in his 30’s.  He continued looking straight ahead as I rolled past with my window down.  I greeted him with “Hey asshole!”.  My salutation was not returned. Idiot.