Category Rants

So I have been getting notices about my free trial of Sirius in the 2016 Tacoma expiring soon.  My plan all along has been to simply migrate my existing plan I had on my stand alone unit to the radio on the truck.  I have been putting off the call for awhile because I normally have a bad experience when dealing with Sirius/XM customer service.  Today I figured I may as well get it over with.

So I called in and was helped by a pleasant woman.  I explained what I needed to do and she said it was no problem.  She said in order to make it work she would need to cancel the subscription I currently have and apply the credit from it’s remaining time to the subscription for the radio in the Tacoma.  She said I would not actually be billed for the Tacoma service until the promo runs out July 21st.  Everything sounded great and I agreed to the terms of the new radio verbally.  I hung up very surprised that the call went so smoothly.

I had another surprise waiting for me when my web streaming session of Sirius, which I normally play at work, stopped about a half hour later. Hmm that’s odd, when I tried to refresh the page it brought me to a sign in screen.  I entered my credentials and they didn’t work.  I then reset my password to see if that would make a difference.  It didn’t.  I reluctantly picked up the phone and called Sirius back.  I knew it couldn’t be simple.

So this time when the phone is picked up instead of being greeted I hear the male phone rep talking to others around him.  Only when I said “Hellllooo” did he acknowledge me.  I told him I had just called in to transfer my service to a new radio but now my internet streaming no longer works.  He took my account information and then told me “just a moment” no less than 6 times, each spaced 10-15 seconds apart.  He said he was waiting for his “screen to come up”  After the last “just a moment” I tried to give him some other details regarding my previous call.  He instantly got aggravated with me and told me “JUST A MOMENT” once again.

Well that turned off my nice switch.  I told him he had no reason to give me attitude as I was trying to give him more information.  He said he needed to wait until his screen came up.  I asked him if he was unable to listen to me while his screen came up?  Of course he didn’t like my attitude either.  Finally his screen came up, some two minutes after he first told me to wait, just a moment. It was just in time as I was seconds away from asking for his supervisor as I grew tired of his bullshit.

So evidently the nice, pleasant woman I spoke to earlier wasn’t very thorough.  Without asking me or telling me, she downgraded my plan during the transfer from “all access” which includes streaming to “select” which does not.  The phone rep asked me in a condescending tone “So you are saying you want to be upgraded to all access?”  I told him no, I want the SAME plan I have had all along at the number I was quoted.  He grumbled something and had me wait a few more “just a moment’s” until he made the change.  He gave me the most snarky and disingenuous “Thank you for being a Sirius customer since 2004” you could imagine before I hung up.  Dipshit.

He assured me streaming should now work but of course it didn’t under my normal credentials.  I had to go into my profile and create a new account name to use for streaming before I could get back online.  My blog is littered with various issues I have had over the years with Sirus ranging from price gouging, to charging for things that were once free, to just good old fashioned bad customer service, so I guess I am not surprised today was just another example.  When I got my customer satisfaction survey I was sure to check the 10+ button in the question , “How many people have you shared your negative experience with?”  In reality the number will be much, much higher…

So yesterday in the mail I received a letter from Comcast.  As I scanned through the letter I got angry very quickly.  In a nutshell the letter said something to the effect that Comcast has been giving me the “HD Technology upgrade” for free and will no longer be doing that as of July 28th.  If I wanted to continue to receive HD programming I would need to contact their office and agree to pay an additional $9.95 per month.  What in the fck are they talking about?? My bill for last month was $192, are they seriously going to try to slap another 10 dollars on top of that?  Why is HD an add on option in the first place in 2016?  That is utterly ridiculous.

So I looked at my bill online and confirmed that my “Double Play” package already included the HD fee. I was pissed.  I called and after giving up on their maze like phone menu I just kept repeating “speak to a representative” until a human being picked up.  Of course this human being was located halfway around the world in India, immediately adding to my frustration level.

When I tried to explain to “Nelson” the letter and how it made no sense, he was clueless.  He had no idea why I would have received it.  He verified that my account package already includes the HD stuff. Yea, no shit.  Throughout the conversation he addressed me as “Mr Shawn” repeatedly, adding to the lunacy of the situation.

So the guy had no idea what the letter was about or if I would actually lose my HD access on July 28th if I didn’t hand over another 10 bucks monthly.  His advice to me was if I lose HD access on the 28th I should call them back and they will restore it.  I asked Nelson if he understood why that was a terrible answer to a customer?  The letter tells me to call in to address the issue.  I called in.  You don’t know anything about the letter and your answer is for me to spend more of my time calling in later if something happens?  “Yes, Mr. Shawn”

I knew I was not going to get anywhere with the guy.  In an attempt to demonstrate how serious he was about my “satisfaction” , he gave me his clerk id like that was going to get me anywhere.  I am sure if I call back in a month and say “Hey Nelson in India said I shouldn’t have had to pay 10 bucks for HD” I will get immediate results.  All I know is if I do actually get HD yanked next month I will be on the warpath.  Charging an HD surcharge present day is nothing short of thievery in my opinion. It’s like charging extra for an automobile to be able to run on higher octane gas.

Yesterday I got back my home DVR from Night Owl.  I found it funny that their repair facility is actually local, less than 5 miles from where I work.  You may recall my difficulty in getting the RMA initiated however once I did the process went smoothly.  I was sent a postage paid shipping label and they sent out a replacement unit the day they received the old one.  I was pleasantly surprised when I realized I unknowingly got an upgrade in the process.  I sent in a 4 channel 1080P system and got an 8 channel 1080P system back.  I wish more things worked that way.  If you count our two Ring doorbells we have a total of 14 cameras around the property keeping an eye on things.  I don’t think anyone will be sneaking up on us anytime soon.

Last night when I got home Cindy’s daughter, her boyfriend and his brother were all at the house.  They had stopped by to visit with Tank who seems to be doing well.  While they were there Cindy talked them into doing a group effort in the 22 kill push up challenge that Cindy and I have been participating in this month.  We shot the set from two angles to add visual variety.  With Camtasia it’s very easy to blend the clips together.

So with the Orlando shootings  it gave social media a big burst of energy to once again fuel the circular argument regarding gun control that accomplishes very little except making people on both sides of the argument seem ignorant to/angry with the other.

Yesterday I saw a lot of gunners deciding to post “educational” information regarding guns, playing down the power of an AR-15, the assault rifle that was the primary death bringer in the attacks.  They thought it important to point out things like how it was not a fully automatic weapon, meaning you can’t just “squeeze and spray” bullets.  You have to pull the trigger for each shot.  Put your hand in a gun position and see how fast you can repeatedly squeeze your index finger. Wow, thanks for that clarification I feel so much better about it now.

Others felt it important to point out that the incident was being misreported as the worst mass shooting in US history when in fact there were other shootings where more people died in different circumstances.  Again, thanks for the education.  How stupid of me to think the real issue was  a man using an assault rifle to mow down people like a carnival game was a terrible tragedy that once again emphasized the need for real change regarding gun laws in the country.

I educated myself a little bit yesterday as well.  I did not realize that assault rifles such as the AR-15 were actually banned for a decade, starting in 1994.  When the provision expired in 2004 Congress chose to not renew it, presumably under HEAVY NRA lobby influence.  If you look at the history of mass shootings since the ban has been lifted, which has sky rocketed, the connection seems pretty damn obvious.  Of course I know it is ridiculous for me to think that common sense could prevail in a situation like this but I can continue to hope lobbyist dollars doesn’t have the final say.

Tomorrow I once again go under the knife for more basal cell skin cancer surgery, this time removing a spot on my left deltoid.  This will be my 6th or 7th procedure to have skin cancer removed.  I remember when I was first told I had skin cancer in my 30’s being very freaked out about it.  I have since become more numb to the diagnosis since my cancer has all been the basal cell variety, it has not been a huge concern.

Having a history of basal cell cancer does put me at risk for the more serious type of skin cancers like melanoma.  I have had friends and former classmates die of melanoma so I do have more serious cancer concerns tucked away  in the back of my mind.  It’s an area that rarely gets opened however.

So I finished up my week of at home training Friday.  I was happy it ended up mid-afternoon, giving me a slightly longer weekend. During the day on Friday I got a head start on my weekend chores getting around the house to weed the property.  I wanted my weekend as open as possible although I knew that more than likely I would find a way to fill that time with more work.

Sadie, who we picked up Thursday night had a dog companion brought in the house when Cindy came home with Tank, her daughter’s dog.  Tank is a french bulldog.  He had surgery done to help alleviate problems that plague the breed with breathing and swallowing.  Cindy had offered for us to watch him for a couple days as the vet said it would be good if Tank was separated from their other dog as they like to roughhouse and play like most dogs do.  Tanks was supposed to keep “calm”.  Well that lasted all of 30 seconds.

You would have never known Tank had pretty serious surgery the day before.  Other than the spot on his front leg that was shaved for a catheter he seemed pretty much fine.  We were a bit concerned how Sadie and he would get along but it wasn’t much of an issue.  Sadie made sure to emphasize she was the main dog when it came to my attention and Tank was content emptying out dozens of dog toys from the basket.

Originally Cindy planned to have Tank sleep in his crate at night despite him normally sleeping in bed with her daughter when he is home.  I told Cindy he could stay in the bedroom with us although it was rather crowded until Sadie jumped down to sleep on the floor.  Tank does not sleep soundly, my last few nights of sleep have been interrupted on a regular basis.

On Saturday morning we thought it would be fun to take Sadie and Tank to our two dog friendly stomping grounds, Rural King and Home Depot. We brought a towel and let Tank cruise around in a cart while Sadie walked conventionally.  Tank seemed to enjoy the experience and other shoppers seemed to enjoy him.  French bulldogs are cute in a bizarre sort of way and garnish a lot of attention.

During Saturday afternoon I got out on the tractor and mowed the grass.  We are now getting to the time of year unfortunately where weekly mowing is required to keep the yard from looking ragged.  Originally we had plans to go see the Warcraft movie Saturday night but I suggested we postpone due to Tank being there and the fact that we had a Netflix disc in the envelope to watch.  Cindy endorsed the plan.

So this movie was Steve Jobs 2.0, where Michael Fasbender took a shot at portraying the tech legend after Aston Kutcher did the same a couple years prior.  I thought it odd that this movie picked up in the timeline pretty much where the first movie left off.  This film focused more on his relationship with his daughter but didn’t touch what I would think is the most interesting portion of his life, when the iWhatever devices started and the degradation of his health.  I think Fasbender is a better actor and did a better job, no pun intended, but the narrow focus on 15 years of his life just seemed odd to me.  I wonder if any Steve Jobs film in the future will try to portray his entire life instead of just portions of it.  I’d give the movie a B, a decent rental.

On Sunday morning Cindy was not feeling like running in the humidity.  I jumped on the treadmill and did 3 miles at nominal pace.  It’s not as effective as being out on the open road but better than skipping a run altogether.  We made a return trip to Home Depot with the dogs, this time in the Tacoma.  We tried to dog proof the cab the best we could.  We already have seat covers up front.  We draped the old SSR seat covers over the rear jump seats where Cindy and Tank sat.  We also had a large towel along for more protection coverage.  Tank seemed very happy to ride in the truck.  The back window was a perfect size for him to see the world.

We took the truck because I was buying construction materials for another project.   After installing the Rachio I decided I’d like to get some sort of additional shelter over the box and the water cleaning equipment that resides there.  I envisioned a simple design, somewhat similar to what I did for chicken run using high durability corrugated pvc panels.  I plan to attach a 2×4 high on the wall and support the front of the “roof” with two 4×4’s that are screwed into the concrete.  At first I had ideas about doing the project during the day but the oppressive heat and humidity put an end to that plan.

Instead I decided to take on another project which I envisioned as pretty simple, replacing one of the blade spindles on the mower deck.  Last week the one spindles felt like it’s bearings were going bad so I thought I would be proactive and replace it.  Despite owning the Craftsman tractor for somewhere around 5 years I have never had the mower deck off yet.  I am able to change blades without pulling the deck but replacing the spindle required deck removal.  Getting the deck out was not too bad, it’s mainly just pulling out about a half dozen cotter pins.

When I was unbolting the old spindle two of the four bolts securing it snapped on removal.  I was glad I followed the advice I received online and ordered four new bolts along with the spindle.  So after some grunting and groaning I got the new spindle on but noticed odd behavior.  Despite my having the bolt on the pulley that is attached to the spindle cranked down as hard as I could manage, the blade was spinning independently of the pulley.

After a few minutes of head scratching I figured out what actually happened.  If you look at the image of the pulley to the left you will see the hole in the center has groves that slide over the center spline in the spindle.  When I looked at the old spindle I saw the spline had been stripped and presumable the pulley had the same damage.  I’m not 100% sure how it happened but I suspect it had to do with the way I was changing the blades.  Instead of blocking the blade movement with a block of wood I would do it by having a wrench/socket on both the blade nut and the pulley nut.  I think I may have accidentally stripped it using that technique.

I was frustrated that once again a job I thought would be simple had now grown into something more aggravating.  I went online and ordered not only a new pulley but the parts to redo the other side as well as a new drive belt.  I figured while I have the deck off the tractor I may as well do both sides of the blade drive train equally.

Cindy and I decided to go and catch Warcraft as a matinee late Sunday afternoon.  As long as I have been waiting to see the movie, not getting out on opening weekend would have been a minor letdown.  The movie has been the victim of a lot of “me too” negativity, something very common nowadays.  People love to jump on the negativity bandwagon with films.  Batman versus Superman was a recent example of this, a movie that certainly was far from perfect but not at all deserving of the heaps of shit that was piled on it.

Warcraft had a bunch of negative reviews from people very quick to dismiss it as another bad video game based movie.  I, as a long time World of Warcraft player and fan, was very interested in seeing what the 160 million dollar film could do to depict the world I have experienced virtually for so long.  I have to say that I found myself swimming upstream from the current of bad feedback on the film.

Visually I thought the movie did an amazing job of bringing the up till now virtual world to life.  They obviously paid a ton of attention to detail.  The story line of the movie actually is prior to the story the game started at so even with all of my experience I was not familiar with the details.  I heard that the movie script has some major departures from official lore in the Warcraft books but I didn’t really care.

I think people that play the game had a major advantage as patrons of the film as a lot of the back story on the characters was already filled in for us.  I can totally see how somebody that was new to the Warcraft scene would have a hard time following what was going on 100%.  The two hours of the film was not nearly long enough to get someone up to speed on the deep and involved story.  Even so I think it was entertaining and interesting.  Cindy, who only knows a little bit about the game, mostly from watching me, really liked the movie.  The movie was far from perfect but I was not disappointed.  As a Warcraft player I give it an A, for the average Joe that is into sci-fi, Lord of the Rings type story I’d still go B+.

Shortly after we got home last night the skies opened up accompanied by a ferocious lighting and thunder storm which shook the house repeatedly. Both dogs were scared and looking for comfort as the strikes rained down.  I was glad I got the grass mowed the day before.

So of course I saw the news about the latest mass shooting at a gay dance club in Orlando.  The 50 total casualties set a dark and disgusting record as the largest mass shooting in American history.  There is sure to be a lot of blowback as the man that committed the murders was evidently the subject of two FBI investigations yet somehow landed a job as a security guard and was able to legally buy the assault rifle used in the attack.  I’m not quite sure how that is possible but it points a bright burning light on the just how screwed up the system is.

The shooting has of course fired up all sorts of ancillary debates some of which never really seem to lead anywhere like banning assault rifle sales.  I have yet to hear a reason why an individual needs to own an assault rifle that makes any sense.  This tragedy fans the flames on multiple fronts, the gun debate, gay bigotry, and muslim hatred.  There have been so many mass shooting tragedies the last decade yet none of it has lead to any substantial change in gun policies or enforcement of existing laws.  It’s gotten to the point where I almost have shoulder shrug response to it all.  Here we go again, mass shooting, outrage, calls for change on the left, calls for “they are coming for our guns” from the right and nothing ultimately changes.

If the country as a whole can not get behind finally doing something to make a discernible effort to at least making it more difficult for these type of situations to occur in the future we should be ashamed to be ashamed in words alone. Words without action mean next to nothing.  I am not sure what sort of tragedy it will ultimately take until some degree of change can finally be seen as reasonable by enough people to make it happen.  Hopefully the world doesn’t burn to the ground before that day finally comes.

Yes I am blogging on a holiday.  Time-wise it just works out.

Even though we had an extra day tacked onto this weekend and no MAJOR projects planned we still have been going much more than not.  On Saturday the main focus was getting the chickens perch reconfigured.  We wanted to lower it to make it safer/easier for the birds to jump down from.  Our original plan was to literally just chop maybe 18 inches from the triangle shaped perch and be done with it.

Saturday morning Cindy suggested that we consider a redesign in coordination with the elevation decrease which at first I was not really into as it sounded like more work.  However with the way the existing perch was constructed, even lowering it’s existing design was going to be more trouble than you would think.  Cindy suggested we transform the perch from a triangle into a rectangle which would allow for more perching space.  Doing so would allow us to use some of the perch in it’s existing layout and to repurpose most of the wood we pull off in it’s new configuration.

We did a Home Depot run in the new Tacoma, adding another 10 bags to go with the 20 I picked up on Friday after work.  We also grabbed the additional lumber we would need to complete the perch which was not much.

We set up the 13 x 13 Coleman tent I bought at Costco a few weeks back to use as a sun shelter.  It worked well until some strong winds started to blow in advance of a storm.  We dropped the tent to prevent it from unintentionally becoming a flying object.  We finished up the work inside the chicken coop to protect us from the rain.  We were both happy with the end result.  It has ample perch space with a low enough height that even our fattest chicken, Cocoa should be able to jump down without getting injured.  Although the birds looked a bit confused about their new sleeping arrangements they eventually settled down and all had more space to sleep than they had previously.

Saturday afternoon I accompanied Cindy to the place her daughter is living with her boyfriend’s parents.  Cindy agreed to look after their two dogs, Tank and Bowser while Katie and the boyfriend’s family were away for the weekend.  I also brought my drone along to get some aerial video of the old abandoned track in the back of their property.  Tank and Bowser are normally crated when nobody is home which always makes me feel badly.  They say dogs don’t mind being crated but it sure doesn’t seem like fun to me.

They were both very happy to see us and ran around happily in the yard, enjoying their freedom.  I took my drone to the back of the property and set it up in the air.  Believe it or not I think this was the first time I have flown the Phantom since the Yellowstone drone prosecution fiasco. The track is badly grown over but you can tell originally a lot of time, money and effort went into it’s construction.  It is fully covered with asphalt and even has banked turns.  Some areas of the track you can barely see due to massive overgrowth.  The aerial footage came out half decent.  Click here if you want to take a look.

On Saturday night we stayed home and watched Max, the story about a military dog whose handler was killed.  Of course any dog related movie is going to be an emotional thing for me.  It was a touching movie that any dog lover will enjoy.  B+

On Sunday morning we were originally going to run but decided to postpone it for a couple reasons, the biggest being the big blister on the side of my foot from wearing wet Crocs a good portion of the day Saturday.  We instead did our second Home Depot run in as many days (after letting out the dogs again) so Cindy could get some supplies to repaint the perch and I could grab a few random items I needed.

When we got home I got around to doing my post 1000 mile oil change on the new Tacoma.  I wanted to minimize the chance of tiny metal shavings contaminating the oil from the engine’s first 1000 miles of use.  I was a little late as the odometer actually read 1305 miles when I did it.  While I was under the truck I heard a car stop out front accompanied by a voice.  It was a guy asking about my old king size mattress I had by the curb.  I was hoping somebody would actually take it instead of it being relegated to the back of a trash truck.  My mom got me the mattress years ago so I had some sentiment about it.

I told the guy the mattress was still in decent shape.  He first asked if I could set it aside until he could come back with his truck but then decided he was going to just strap it to the roof of his car.  I helped him hoist the mattress into position and he then tied it down.  It made me feel good knowing someone potentially will continue to get use out of the mattress that mom carefully picked out for me years ago.

I decided to video the oil change on the Tacoma just as I do with nearly all of my automotive work.  I figured it would be a good way for me to get some familiarity with my new truck.  I was literally just changing the oil and not the filter.  The oil filter location on the the new Tacomas is a bit of a pain in the ass as the only way you can reach it is by removing the skid plate from the truck.  It also is a canister type filter instead of the conventional all-in-ones I have dealt with in the past.  You unscrew the the housing and just replace the filter element inside.  I am not sure why Toyota thought this was a better choice as I am sure it will be quite a messy job to replace.

The oil swap went smoothly.  If you would like to see the documentary regarding it, click here.

After lunch I hopped on the tractor to get the yard mowed.  The grass growth rate has now started to accelerate due to the increase in precipitation.  I tried to hurry up and get done because we planned to go see a matinee of the new X-men movie at 3:30.  Even with us hustling we walked into the theater just as previews had started.  Luckily the time of day meant the theater was very empty.

Like Captain America, this movie was very long, nearly two and a half hours.  I always enjoy X-men movies although my comic book knowledge of their characters is not very strong.  I liked the movie. Although it was not as good as Civil War in my opinion, I would still give it an A- rating.

This morning we finally got out for our run.  I let my normal weekday alarm set to get us out of bed relatively early so we could start before the heat of the day hit hard.  We got to the track around 7AM and tacked on an extra lap which added up to just shy of 4 miles, a longish run for me nowadays.  We were both glad to get the run out of the way early.  Afterwards we went straight to Dunkin Donuts followed by a stop at Sam’s to grab some bulk and ancillary items.

I am hoping to be able to just chill for a good portion of the rest of the day as we have no Memorial Day social functions on the calendar.  For the last 5 or 6 years my Memorial Days used to always include timing a race in the morning and then attending the running club Memorial Day picnic in the late afternoon.  I used to have a lot of fun at the club picnic.  The recent venue change for the picnic last year along with the changes in my relationship with the club have made that option not an appealing one this year unfortunately.  Perhaps circumstances in the future will make it a better option once again.

Of course today really isn’t about picnics, pool parties, hot dogs or hamburgers.  It’s a day to reflect upon and appreciate those that gave up themselves in the name of our country.  It is a sacrifice not many can imagine but hopefully more can respect and learn from. Wouldn’t a goal of a more peaceful existence in the future where regular loss of life in the military is not so commonplace that it hardly generates a mention in the 24 hour news machines be a great thing?

I mixed in a couple brief partial front lever static holds into my bicep and tricep routine today.  I was inspired to do so by a video I saw the other day with Marcus Bondi, a very famous Australian calisthenics guy.  He is incredibly strong and owns a Guiness world record for climbing rope with no leg assist.  The most amazing thing is the guy is 50 years old.

Anyway he is in NYC for a few days and was giving a few tips in the video for certain moves, one of them being a front lever.

A front lever is when you hold your body parallel to the ground while holding onto a bar.  As you can imagine it is very, very difficult and puts tremendous strain on your shoulders and core.  I have done front lever raises like pictures to the right but I have never been able to hold the position.

Anyway, Marcus described how you should be trying to “bend the bar” when holding a lever, meaning when you grasp it you apply tension as if you were trying to bend it.  What this does is help you lock your shoulders, scalpula and arms in a more stable position.

So anyway I tried it today but with my legs only half extended.  Without the benefit of a video camera or mirror to check position it’s hard to tell how parallel my body was although it felt decent.  Even with bending the bar I only could hold the position for a few seconds before I started getting spots in my field of vision, a good clue to stop.  I’d like to get back to working both my front and back levers more often.  Doing so without tearing something is the tricky part.

I forgot to mention the embarrassment Flyers fans once again brought to the city of Philadelphia the other night while getting their asses kicked by the Capitals.  The night was a tribute to Ed Snider, a long time owner of the team who passed away recently.  As part of the tribute they handed out these light up bracelets to the fans.

The fans weren’t happy with the way the team was playing which is fine.  Noone expects Philly fans to tolerate shitty play or poor effort without hearing about it in the form of boos or heckling.  However some genius thought it would be extra cool to take his honorary bracelet and hurl it at a Capitals player in the penalty box, hitting him in the head.

In a few brief moments full blown lemming mentality kicked in and hundreds if not thousands of bracelets were thrown onto the ice despite the pleas from the announcer and players to knock it off.  It eventually lead to the Flyers fans earning a penalty themselves, not that it changed the outcome of the game at that point.

To be clear I have not followed the Flyers to any degree since the days Eric Lindros and John LeClair were on the team.  However I will always be a Philly sports fan and find myself disgusted by the behavior.  It’s disrespectful on so many levels.  It is a testament to how at their core, so many people are mindless followers, with a full blown “asshole” switch that can be flipped with very minimal effort.

On Saturday morning Cindy was coaching at her first track meet, leaving me alone to run wild at the house.  I did a number of chores around the house including having all four of my cleaning robots running simultaneously scrubbing/vacuuming all of the flooring.  I then decided I was going to head out to Home Depot.

Cindy and I decided we were going to add an extra level of castle stone to the landscaped border around the pool.  We are both sick and tired of the chickens going into the area and kicking the rubber mulch out into the grass.  It has become a constant see saw of work.  So our thought was adding the second layer of stone would be enough of a wall to deflect their shrapnel back into the bed where it belongs.

Cindy had counted and we needed a little more than 90 of the 12 inch stones to do the second layer (we already had bought a few).  I had bought these stones in bulk once before and just had them bring them out on a pallet which I requested once again.  The immense weight immediately bottomed out the Tacoma’s suspension.  I am sure I was well over the posted maximum payload of 1700 pounds.  I drove very conservatively on the way home.

On the drive home my cell phone rang from an Oregon number.  It was a guy named Al that was calling about the SSR.  He had not seen the ad on Craigslist.  In fact he didn’t see any ads at all.  He was called about it from one of the main guys from SSR Fanatics.  On Friday I decided to also post my truck on their forum for sale.  I didn’t expect a lot from the posting but obviously I was wrong.  Al was called because the SSRF guy (Dick) knew he was looking for a 6 speed truck.    So anyway Al said he could leave Cape Coral right away to come see the truck so I told him to come on down.

When he showed up I was a bit shocked to see ANOTHER SSR parked in the driveway.  I had no idea he already had an SSR, a 2004 with a slick custom paint job.  He actually has owned his truck for 4 or 5 years but he was interested in a 6 speed.  Since Dick has met me and worked on my truck at a few of the meet ups he personally vouched for my truck, letting Al know it was nice.

Al was like the vast majority of SSR owners I have met, of retirement age and very nice.  Of course I didn’t have to give him a walk through of the truck like I did last week since he was already very familiar with the vehicles obviously.  When I told him some of the upgrades I had done like the LS7 Corvette clutch swap he knew exactly what it was and why it was a good thing.  We went on a decent test drive and he confirmed he liked the truck, just like Dick said he would.  Unlike last week where the buyer was all about lowballing, Al was fine paying my asking price, his background as a SSR owner made my price fair to him when compared to other trucks out there.

After the test drive Al hung at the house for quite awhile talking with Cindy and I.  Most of the conversation was not SSR related at all, just exchanging snippets of our background.  Al has been retired since he was 55 and spends 3 months out of the year living on his boat in Oregon.  It sounded like he was very fortunate the way things fell in place for him when retirement came around and he was grateful for it.  So we got around to making plans for the sale.  He left me a check for a deposit and said to call him Sunday after he checked his calendar to see when we could do the sale.

We worked it out that I am leaving work early today to get it all done.  I brought the SSR to work and will be driving it to Al’s house with Cindy following me in the Tacoma.  We will then leave the truck there and head to the bank and DMV office to finalize the paperwork.  It will feel weird for sure to walk away from the R but it is offset by getting much more money for it than I was willing to accept a few days prior.  It’s funny how things work out.  It’s also funny that Al will have two SSR’s in his driveway until he manages to sell his 2004. 🙂

After Al left I wasted little time heading outside to work on the 2nd level of our castle stone border.  Cindy and I first unloaded all of the stones, putting them in place on the wall where they would go.  It was only temporary as I needed to go stone by stone and reset both the first and second layer.  When I originally put the castle stone in place I just used the sandy soil as the base under the wall.  Over time areas of the wall have shifted as a result.  A good number of the stones had a slight downward facing angle which looked shitty.

Along with the pallet of stone I also bought 6 bags of substrate normally used under a paver installation.  The substance was basically very small stones, designed to give a firm base to support the blocks.  I began a very arduous process of pulling up each and every stone and re-leveling it, using the stone base to provide support.  It was not enjoyable as you can imagine.  Most of the work required me to be on my knees which gets painful very quickly.  I just kept my blinders on and focused on getting done.  Before I called it quits for the day I had about 75% of the wall complete which was cool.

We cleaned up and headed out to Germain arena for an Everblades game.  We had not gone to see the local minor league hockey team for a couple years.  I saw it was Star Wars night so I thought it would be fun to go.  When we got there the parking lot was pretty full, something we arent used to with the sparsely attended Tarpons games we are used to.

As we walked up to the ticket window I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw signs on the window saying SOLD OUT. WTF?  Germain seats between 5000-6000 people I could hardly believe the game would be sold out.  Cindy and I looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders.

Just as we were ready to start walking back to the parking lot a couple behind us stopped us.  The man said he had spare tickets and we could have a couple of them.  I told him I would gladly pay for them.  He said to not worry about it they were already paid for by his business.  Cindy and I could hardly believe our good fortune.  When we got inside I tried to repay their kindness to at least a small degree by buying the guy a beer.  It’s always nice to confirm that not all people are assholes.

Now I am the farthest thing from a hockey fan you can get but it was still fun to be at a live game.  I downed a couple large Shocktop drafts to help up the fun level.  We also enjoyed chowing down on our standard arena menu of pizza, a soft pretzel and roasted nuts.  At the end of the second period Cindy wasn’t feeling great after downing her alcoholic cider.  The home team was down 2-0 at that point.  I told Cindy I was fine heading out and although she didn’t want to be the impetus to leave I could tell she liked the idea.  After thanking the couple once again for their generosity we headed out.  I saw later the Everblades wound up losing 2-1.

On Sunday morning there was no way I felt like running/riding after the block work Saturday afternoon.  Plus I wanted to take advantage of the cooler morning temperatures to finish up the wall.  Of course I was just a little short of what I needed to finish so Cindy and headed out for yet another Home Depot trip.  We grabbed more castle stone as well as 12 more border stones that looked like smaller cousins of castle stone.  We wanted to lay them down as a test in the rock border area to see how they look.  Unfortunately the chickens have no problems kicking small river rock out of a landscape bed either.  Cindy has been putting the displaced stones back in place several times a week.  Surprisingly the chickens don’t listen when we ask them to stop scratching in those areas. 🙂

When we got back I finished up the main wall.  Both Cindy and I liked the finished product and we have not seen any projectile mulch clear the wall since it was extended.  We laid down the smaller stone border on a small section of the river rock bed and it looked good.  Although it is significantly smaller than castle stone in height we are thinking it should be high enough to block the stones since they won’t fly as far as mulch.

I was pooped from the labor that covered portions of both days of the weekend.  Late in the afternoon I decided to finally get to making a video that told the story regarding my drone prosecution.  Although I kept the video pretty in the middle, not trash talking the NPS tactics as much as I could have, I wanted to get a video out there shining a light on what happened.  Perhaps the same ranger that thought it was fair game to ruin my Xmas holiday will stumble across this video as well.  Hopefully it makes him sleep better at night.

The video is about 15 minutes long.  I don’t believe I have ever talked at that length on film at one shot.  As expected there are some stumbles along the way but all in all I give a pretty clear outline of what went down and why I feel it was handled poorly.

I ran into another roadblock in the potential sale of the SSR, albeit a small one.  Titles in Florida are exclusively the electronic variety when they are issued.  They only get converted to paper when necessary.  Well liens banks put on titles are also electronic.  When a loan is paid off the bank is supposed to notify the DMV so the lien check mark is removed.  Until that happens nothing can happen with the title.

Well evidently when I paid off the SSR loan a few months back my credit union neglected to take this step.  I had to call them yesterday to request to have it removed.  The representative said she cleared the flag but it takes 72 hours to take effect, for some dumb reason.  I went through a similar song and dance when I was trying to finalize the transaction Cindy and I had with the Prius.  So there is no point listing the vehicle as being for sale until you actually have everything in place to allow you to actually sell it.

Last night I watched some of the republican town hall on CNN.  We happened to flip the tv on during Trump’s segment.  The format was not favorable for Donald.  When he doesn’t have others on the stage to hurl insults at you quickly realize he has absolutely nothing substantial to say about anything.  He simply has no specifics about issues and is unable to intelligently expand on any question asked of him.  Instead he just relies on his relatively small collection of 4th grade vocabulary to describe things like, great, the biggest, the worst, the best, terrible, awful, great, great, and great.

Anderson Cooper was relentless in actually holding Donald accountable for what was coming out of his mouth.  The highlight was when Trump was asked about the ridiculous wife mud slinging exchange between Ted Cruz and himself.  Donald’s first statement was “He started it!” which Anderson immediately identified as something a 5 year old would say.  It was pretty epic.

Out of the three remaining republican candidates John Kasich is far and away the most experienced, likeable, and reasonable. This is exactly why he is the underdog.  Too many Americans are impressed by one liners that have nothing substantial behind them other than intentions to anger and divide.

This is a story that has it’s origins back in early September but has been on my plate since Christmas Eve.  It is a story that is still in the process of being written therefore this article will not be totally complete until the gavel has hit the desk.  This will be long, very, very long so you may want to pour a second cup of coffee and have a third brewing.

So anyway, I have owned my DJI Phantom quadcopter for a couple years.  During that time I have equipped it with a GoPro camera allowing me to capture beautiful aerial views of various areas.  On our 2015 western road trip I packed it up in it’s hard shell case hoping to get some nice footage of the breath taking venues in the western United States.

One of the places I flew briefly was in Yellowstone Park on the second of the two days we spent in the park.  The flight was perhaps a total of 5 minutes in length and took place in a deserted area in the northwest corner of the park on our way out of the park en route to Idaho.  The aerial footage was scenic but uneventful.  The most interesting part of it all was when the drone bounced upon landing and had a gust of wind blow it a few feet down a small hill.  The footage was edited down to around 90 seconds and I posted it to YouTube when I got back from the trip, just as I posted most of my other aerial videos.

So the story now fast forwards in time to Christmas Eve, more than three and a half months later.  As I was driving around trying to get some last minute Christmas shopping done I noticed several calls coming in from a Wyoming number.  I did not answer the phone as I generally do not answer unknown numbers to avoid unwanted solicitations.  This happened three or four times and each time the individual on the other end chose to not leave a voicemail message.  It was very odd that somebody so interested in speaking to me would not leave a message so the next time the call came through curiosity got the better of me and I answered it, fully prepared to hang up on the person as soon as I heard what they were selling.

Well the man on the other line identified himself.  He said he was a park ranger and he asked if I minded if he asked me a few questions regarding my drone flight I had posted in YouTube.  Wow now my curiosity was really peaked, I had no idea why he would be calling about the flight, the quickest explanation that popped into my head was he was looking for permission to use the video elsewhere, a request I have had with other YouTube video content of mine. So I said sure, go ahead although I was still confused about the whole thing, it was bizarre.  Well it got a lot more bizarre in the next 10 minutes.

So the ranger started asking me for some details of the flight like what date, time, and location the flight took place.  I was in the car still during the call so I had no specific details just vague estimates since it was over 3 months ago.  He asked more things like was there anyone else around, whose car was in the video and other specifics which did not seem to make sense.  Why would he care about these things?

So I stopped and asked him why he was asking all of these questions.  After he has asked me enough questions to thoroughly entrap myself he then tells me that it is against park violations to launch or land a drone within national park boundaries.  I was silent for a second as the reality of that moment sunk in.  I immediately told the ranger I had absolutely no idea that there was a restriction on drone flights.  I saw no information at the park regarding it.  I emphasized that if I knew there was a ban there was absolutely no way I would have flown, it isn’t worth it.

As the ranger listened to me he offered up that he believed that I did not know about the ban ahead of time but he still had to file a citation for the offense.  Say what???  When he first mentioned it was a violation I assumed, ok, he is going to warn me to never do it again and to remove the video from YouTube which seemed appropriate.  Surely his call alone was more than enough to ensure I never fly inside park boundaries again, if that was truly the goal.  I paused for a few seconds, fighting back the anger reflex that wanted to lash out at the ranger about the abandonment of common sense when it came to the situation.  A citation, for a flight with no park impact not witnessed by any park ranger outside of YouTube, 3 months post, with fuzzy dates, times and locations.   You have to be kidding me.

Ok so I tried to calm down and gather my thoughts.  I told the ranger that I didn’t understand.  I said if he believed I had no prior knowledge of the ban and he agreed that nothing destructive or dangerous occurred during the flight, why would a warning not be an appropriate course of action?  He indicated he had “no choice” (bullshit), and that he was not required to prove I had prior knowledge of the ban, only that a flight took place.

I again indicated this did not make sense to me. I asked for clarification about this rule and where park visitors are notified about it.  The ranger said it was “in the news” a lot when the ban was enacted in late 2014 and that there is signage posted at certain points in the park.  When I asked for specifics about where the signage was placed he could not give me the details.  Again, it wasn’t their job to make sure I knew.

The only thing the ranger offered up was that perhaps the judge would side with me and would agree a warning was appropriate.  The ranger completed ruining my Christmas Eve by saying normally you are required to appear in person in front of a federal judge for NPS citations but since I live so far away the court would PROBABLY allow me to appear via phone.  The ranger said I should receive paperwork in the mail regarding the citation and I should expect to have my court date in early February some time.  Before hanging up the ranger asked if there were any other questions he could answer for me.  Of course I could not ask what I really wanted to know, why the National Park Service has nothing better to do on Christmas Eve than surf YouTube to retroactively cite people for poorly communicated park restrictions of violations where no people, animals, or park property were negatively impacted whatsoever.  Instead, I said no and hung up the phone shortly before getting back home.  I was literally in shell shock.

So the first thing I did was delete the video on YouTube as obviously I didn’t want to post footage of something that I now knew was a banned activity.  The next thing I did was a lot of internet research on the park drone ban.  As is often the case it came about due to a few people doing stupid things.  One drone pilot crashed into Yellowstone Lake and then asked park rangers for assistance in retrieving it. But the most egregious offense was a German tourist who crashed his drone into a famous Yellowstone Geyser.  The drone sunk to the bottom of the geyser and was never retrieved.  Park officials are concerned that as the materials inside the drone break down, especially the battery , it will permanently change the appearance of the geyser.

Although I hate that a few careless drone operators had ruined it for thousands of other drone hobbyists, I can understand how incidents like that would cause a reaction from the NPS that resulted in the ban.  But in my situation, there were circumstances different from any other documented case I found online and there were only a handful.  In the cases I found online a park ranger was directly involved in the incident and there was some sort of impact on park property, people or animals.  (another guy buzzed bison and flew around a bunch of tourists near a geyser)

So anyway the rest of Christmas Eve and Christmas were tainted by the rangers phone call.  Despite trying my best to enjoy myself I had this situation weighing on me heavily.  As an adult I have not had so much as a speeding ticket.  To be told I may need to appear in front of a federal judge for a federal citation was a big deal to me.  For the next several days I slept terribly with the incident gnawing at my mind. I was angry at myself for being trusting/naive enough to give the ranger the information he needed.  I was angry that park rangers have so little going on that they surf internet media sites looking for ways to cite visitors and I had tremendous anxiety not knowing what the end result of it all would be.

So I contacted a friend of mine from the running club that is a lawyer, an estate/probate lawyer, but a lawyer nonetheless.  I recanted the situation to him and asked him if this is even possible, to cite someone via YouTube and contact them via cell phone calls instead of through official channels like mail.  The lawyer said he had never heard of either practice, YouTube policing or prosecution via cell phone.  He advised me to just sit tight and see if anything ever shows up in the mail.

For about three weeks that is exactly what I did, sit tight and hope the park ranger office realized they were being unreasonable.  Nothing ever arrived in the mail but then the calls started again.  I did not bother to answer them this time as I figured if there was something I needed to actually deal with they would actually leave a message.  After some hang ups over a couple days a message was finally left. It was from another park ranger, although they like to identify themselves as law enforcement officers on the phone.  The ranger asked me to call him back to talk about details about the case and what the prosecutor was recommending.

After talking to my lawyer buddy again I decided I should just ignore cell phone contacts going forward.  If they wanted to move forward with this capricious enforcement case let them do so though certified mail like any normal law enforcement agency does.  So the day after I make that decision I get ANOTHER voicemail but instead of Wyoming, this number was a local 239 area code.  It was from a female park ranger from Everglades National Park.  In the message she indicated she had the Yellowstone citation and needed to deliver it in person.  Well now that a nearby agency was involved I felt like I needed to respond.

I called the woman back.  I asked her why the citation had to be hand delivered instead of sent through the mail.  She said it had to be handed to me by a ranger.  It was like somehow her handing me a citation now was the same as a park ranger catching me in the act in Yellowstone four months ago? It seemed stupid.  I told her to just meet me at work in the parking lot.  The female ranger arrived with her short male partner, fully decked out in thick chest pad armor and weapons holstered on each hip.  I tried to engage the woman about the situation and explain why it seemed so ridiculous.  She said she was only the messenger and little else. Sorry, I thought you were a NPS law enforcement officer as well.

When I went back in the office a new wave of anger flowed through me.  I could hardly believe my federal tax dollars were being used to pay for my own prosecution of a non-event captured on YouTube, 3 months after it occurred.  I was also amazed at the citation itself that had not one shred of accurate date or time information on it.  Why would time and date of a violation be insignificant?  The citation stated the violation occurred on September 10th at 6:46 PM.  I was not even in the park at that point, we had driven back to Cody, WY for the night.

So in addition to the citation I was given information regarding the court out in Yellowstone, including the contact information for the prosecutor for the case.  I decided to call him.  Once he pulled up my case info he told me he had some good news and bad news.  The good news was the I should not be required to appear in person, a phone appearance will be acceptable.  The bad news was the “standard” fine in this sort of offense is $1035  This was the first time I heard an actual dollar figure thrown out regarding my violation, to have that number be four digits long was not expected.  I again gave background on the circumstances of the incident and how I had zero knowledge of the ban.  The prosecutor said he also believed I did not know but said he had no responsibility either, just like the park rangers, to prove I knew I was violating the law.

He apparently had the ranger that was so kind as to ruin my Christmas in the office, evidently park citations are big business.  The ranger indicated that all park visitors are supposed to be handed a newspaper that mentions the drone ban on the front page.  I told them I did not recall being handed any newspaper but I would check with my girlfriend since she kept EVERYTHING from the trip.  I later confirmed we did not get a paper.  I took pictures of what we were handed and emailed them to the prosecutor.  He responded back that he would talk further to the ranger about the case.  It was the first shred of good news I had heard.  I held out hope that perhaps common sense could actually prevail and they would decide to drop the citation.

Well after a couple weeks of hearing nothing I followed up with the prosecutor who then said the rangers office should be getting back to me. Ok great, hopefully this was good news! It took me a week to get in touch with them after some phone tag.  I was not happy with the outcome of the conversation.  The ranger acted like I never sent the pictures to the prosecutor, he instead wanted to encourage me to take a plea deal.  In exchange for pleading guilty the prosecutor would recommend a $1035 dollar fine that broke down to a $500 fine, a $500 community service donation to Yellowstone and $35 in court costs.  This was officially all about the money and nothing else.  They make the fine small enough that it is not practical to hire a lawyer but large enough to both cause significant financial pain to people as well as funnel healthy chunks of money into the park service, one citation at a time. I was so frustrated.  Obviously this case had nothing to do with educating drone hobbyist about the flight restriction and curbing future behavior, it is all a shakedown for money.

So my anger was stoked again to a high level after the call with the ranger.  Despite the refusal of the NPS to use what I would consider a common sense approach to this point I went through an email exchange with the the ranger, trying to back up my claim that this was an unreasonable citation.  In my emails I included a link to an article in “High Country News”  from July 2015 where the subject was the drone ban in parks.  In the article a park employee from nearby Grand Teton park said that despite the drone ban being in place since late 2014, there have been more drone flights in parks in 2015.  He explained a large part of this as “many people just don’t know about the ban in national parks”  Later in the article it states,  “In most parks, rangers have adopted a solicitous approach. They respond to sightings (usually called in by other visitors or park employees), then try to find the pilots once the machine is on the ground, and gently inform them of the ban. Most hobbyists have been receptive to it. Citations are generally only issued when drone operators have “noncompliant attitudes,” or if the incident is especially egregious.” Obviously this is not the attitude of Yellowstone park rangers who instead appear to put a priority on maximizing park citation revenue by searching social media for retroactive violations.

I also included the article that documented a drone case from October 2014 where a tourist was flying his drone around a crowded tourist area near a geyser basin.  In addition he flew his drone around a nearby group of bison which could spook the animals and send them charging.  This man was fined the same $1035 that was being proposed for my situation which seemed totally not congruent. The ranger was not very receptive to my attempts to illustrate the holes in the logic being used in this situation.

I also had contact with a lawyer in the Miami area I know from my calisthenics contacts.  He specializes in traffic citation defense but I got his opinion on my situation.  I even went as far as contacting two Wyoming lawyers to explain my situation and see if it was worth fighting.  Although both lawyers agreed the circumstances around the citation seem shady and possibly winnable, the bottom line was I would spend more fighting the ticket (significantly more)than paying the fine.  Sure it would be nice to fight the ticket in the name of principal but I don’t have enough disposable income to throw at a cause to simply prove a point. My frustrating conclusion was I would accept the plea deal and use my opportunity to make a “mitigating statement” to the judge, explaining my side of the story to hopefully at least get the fine reduced.

Ever since the call on Christmas Eve, which I still think was totally unnecessary and very inconsiderate of the ranger, I have had this hanging in the back of my mind.  My phone appearance was scheduled for March 3rd, yesterday.  I made my appearance in my office with the door closed.  The judge actually was handling three cases at once, one other drone violation and a DUI case.  I found it interesting that the other drone defendant was evidently also “apprehended” via YouTube.  This guy seemingly did know about the drone restriction as he tried to spice up his YouTube video for more hits, naming it something like “Merica, drones banned in national parks” with a pic of a drone flying at Mt Rushmore.  He admitted to the judge it was a stupid thing to do, the judge agreed.

So I had typed up a little more than a page long mitigating statement that I initially planned to read at the appropriate time.  Since there were two other defendants involved I didn’t feel right about reading the entire thing.  Instead I just made my two main points, I had no idea about the drone ban going in and that the fine seems out of whack compared to the tourist/geyser/bison buzzing guy that was fined the same as being proposed for me.

I have to be honest I was surprised that the judge actually did seem to have an open mind.  I had sort of assumed no matter what I would say I was going to be railroaded into the recommended $1035 fine.  Instead the judge used my mitigating statements as a basis to reduce my fine by $250 less than the prosecutor recommended, a luxury not provided to my fellow drone enthusiast.  Although it was not nearly as satisfying as a complete dismissal would be it offered me some sense that at least some common sense was finally utilized in this ordeal, which was absent from the NPS or prosecutor offices.  I thanked the judge for the additional consideration before the call was terminated.

Almost as soon as the call was over I managed to track down my co-defendant on Facebook and started a conversation with him comparing notes.  He too got the ridiculous Christmas Eve call and he too was presented with a citation with random incident details.  Like me he would have liked to fight the citation but financial reality curtailed his efforts as well.  It was somewhat therapeutic to at least talk with someone else that has been subjected to the same treatment by the NPS.

At this point I now have to satisfy my $750 tab to the government/NPS.  This experience has really been an eye opener about just how government agencies can prey upon the public, resorting to social media policing, personal cell phone calls and whatever else is needed to protect the world from those dangerous drone hobbyists.  It makes me proud to know that our tax dollars were utilized to prosecute criminals such as myself.  I will surely sleep better at night.

So once again yesterday my wellness level seemed to be on a flat line with only a few ticks in a more positive direction.  My symptoms include occasional violent flemish coughing, sinuses that despite not much  nasal drip feel packed and inflamed, almost like when you get water up your nose, and consistent body/muscle pain where areas of my body almost tingle while a persistent feeling of weakness remains.   It’s just a whole lot of suck.  I am crossing my fingers that this breaks by the weekend so I can step back into the realm of psuedo normalcy.

So yesterday was the legal conclusion of an ordeal that began on Christmas Eve when I received a call on my cell phone from a Yellowstone Park Ranger regarding my 5 minute drone flight in the park in September.  I had a 90 second video online of the flight and for some reason the ranger office was very bored deciding to surf YouTube to retroactively cite park visitors for violating the park drone restrictions, something I had no idea about.  Well this has been the lynch pin of much anger, frustration, and confusion since the initial call.  The culmination of it coming yesterday when I had to appear via phone in a Wyoming federal court.  The penalty was a total fine of just over $750 which was actually discounted from what was originally proposed, a result of my statement about the circumstances surrounding the incident.

I have a very long blog entry documenting the ordeal in the works that I have kept out of public view until my court appearance was in the books so there is no reason for me to go into great detail here.  Let’s just say I feel wronged.