Category Relationships

Well Valentine’s Day 2013 certainly is not a bright and shiny one this year for obvious and not so obvious reasons.  It looks like the weather gods have done their part, dialing up a gray, wet and dreary day to match my mood.

I am struggling to keep the lights on at the recently launched new Bar-barians website.  My web host keeps warning me about usage issues.  I continue to take steps wherever I can to streamline the site to minimize impact to the shared server the website resides on.  The latest step has been the implementation of a robots.txt file to cut down on search spiders crawling the site.

Ironically, the web hosting I pay for is described as “Unlimited” .  I guess it is unlimited until you hit the limit.

 

Friday night I was at Ali’s place until almost 10 o’clock.  I wanted to get a head start on the various handyman duties I had to do there, the biggest of which was assembling her four pieces of Ikea furniture, which were three book shelves and one glass door cabinet.

We actually got more done than I expected, completing the assembly of three of the book shelves.  After doing the first one, each subsequent unit took less time.  The biggest time sink is hammering in the 500 nails in the rear that hold the press board backing in place.

Despite getting to bed after 11 Friday night I had it in my head that I wanted to run 10 miles Saturday morning at the 6am club run.  I drug myself out of bed and into the cold air.  The temp was right around 50, cold if you are standing around but great to run in.

I ran most of the 10 miles by myself, only hooking up with a nice woman for the last 3.5 miles, that I found out later is friends with Alison.  My average pace for the run was right around 9:15, not fast, but at this point I just want to get my legs/knees ok with carrying me for that period of time.  I’d like to get one or two more 10 milers under my belt if I am going to do the Hooters half marathon.

I went straight from running, back to Ali’s apartment to resume the projects.  Assembling the cabinet was very similar to constructing the bookshelves, the biggest challenge was adjusting the hinges so the doors closed well.

So before buying the furniture Ali had done some measurements and determined that the cabinet and two bookshelves would fit on the wall in front of the staircase.  I did some quick eyeballing of the furniture and realized the three units would consume far too much real estate to fit.  A new layout was needed.

Alison had a hair appointment at 11 so before she left we talked about various arrangements but didn’t firmly decide on one.  I told her I would work on the arrangement and other tasks that were left while she was gone.  I first attended to the other, non-furniture related tasks which were hanging an overhead light in the office and hanging a drying rack in the small utility room.

I then returned to the main living space to sort it out.  I wound up relocating a large chest to the office where it barely fit underneath the sewing table.  I then centered the remaining bookshelf on the shorter wall, put the dog eating tables where the chest was and moved the old existing book shelf to the top of the stairs.  I even got rid of the mountain of empty cardboard boxes, put the bedroom furniture back in order (we had started moving that around too), and even swept the steps with the Dyson.

Ali returned to her place surprised to find I had made order out of the mild chaos she left in a little more than 2 hours.  It’s a skill I have always been good at.

She was appreciative of my efforts as she checked out the end result of the labor.  Unfortunately I was not done, we wanted to head to the Apple store and upgrade both of our Iphones.  I had plans for Saturday night so I was worried that the Apple store would be SWAMPED on a Saturday afternoon.

Alison and I could hardly believe when we turned the corner and saw all the blue shirts.  They had a TON of staff on the floor, I didn’t count but I bet there were at least 30 employees on the floor.  Despite there being a large amount of customers on the floor as well, we had an Apple guy immediately available to help us.

We already knew what we wanted, Iphone 5’s, the only thing to be determined was how much memory we wanted in the new phones and the color (black or white).  Ali went with a 32 gig white phone and I did the same thing in black.

The efficiency of the store is pretty damn amazing.   By using a wireless iTouch device the entire transaction for two phones was completed in minutes.  In total I am not sure if we were in the store for even 20 minutes.  I seriously expected to be in there at least an hour and a half.

We got done so fast that we had time to stop in Best Buy to pick up cases for the phones.  Ali likes the Lifeproof cases that are very expensive but are like encasing your phone in a big bulletproof condom.  I went with a simpler but effective silicon case that protects the phone from impact.  I got a high end screen protector as well although I felt disgusted with myself for forking over 25 bucks for it, more than I paid for the case.

I didn’t have a lot of time to play with the phone before heading out but I did like the larger screen, the faster performance of not only the hardware but also the LTE network the phone can hook into and the talk to text feature which is pretty damn handy for on the go communication.  I also asked Siri a couple questions and I liked the answers she gave me.

Since my Friday night and Saturday were eaten up I didn’t get started on stuff around the house till Sunday.  Since I am going to be gone a good chunk of this upcoming weekend it was important that I get some stuff done.  I picked up the dogs and had them hang out with me while I worked.

The weather at least was awesome while I toiled, the cool morning temps evolved into pretty much perfect temps as the day went on.  I had almost every opening in the house wide open to take advantage of it.

Late in the afternoon I had my immediate list done so I turned to ancillary items.  One of those items was installing some hooks onto my pull up station.

This idea came into my head last week for some reason.  I thought that if I mounted some sort of anchoring system on either pull up bar support I would be able to utilize rubber resistance bands to add a new dimension to my work outs.

The hooks I installed were bought at Home Depot.  The only challenging part of the install was using a tape measure to ensure both hooks were mounted more or less parallel to each other.  Once the hooks were mounted I simply strung one of my bands across, slapped it over my shoulders and did a few reps.  It worked just as I hoped.  If you want to see my two minute explanation you can see it here.

So since Ali was coming out to pick up the dogs anyway I suggested she just stays and watches the Super Bowl.  She stopped at the grocery store and picked up some food that we always would generally reserve for the big game, stuff to make pigs in a blanket (veggie dogs of course), spanikopita and bagel bites. Food that is wonderfully awful for you but is that is totally in bounds by Super Bowl standards.

Regular blog readers will know that for most of the last 6 or 7 years we would host a small party at the house with the famous betting board which would be stacked with dozens of quarters.  Obviously there was none of that fun this year.  It felt both familiar and awkward to have Ali and the dogs hanging out in our new situation as we watched the game.

The game itself was very, very good.  One of the best I can recall with a big comeback by the Niners falling short with less than two minutes to go in the game.  Despite the excitement I was so tired I found my eyes drifting closed time and again.

The 35 minute power outage was pretty interesting.  Since I was watching the game time shifted on the Tivo I was able to thankfully fast forward past a lot of the filler CBS had to do until the lights were back on.

The half time show I guess was ok, if you really like Beyonce.  For me however I thought it was kind of blah.  I told Ali I always like when a Super Bowl halftime show has a bunch of performers you never see performing together, performing together.

I thought the commercials this year had the normal amount of laugh out loud moments along with the spots that leave you scratching your head.   I don’t really have any specific commentary about them although the Clydesdale being reunited with his trainer was very touching.

By the time Ali and the dogs left it was after 11.  I woke up this morning REALLY wishing the day after the Super Bowl was a national holiday.

Randall was scheduled to show up somewhere around 8 o’clock Friday night.  I had quite a bit to do so I didn’t mind his eta.  On the way home I stopped first at Costco and then Publix for groceries.  Once I got home I dug right into the various race prep that needed to be done.  As I was doing so I decided to crack open some Bud Light Platinums.

I had not eaten anything up until this point.  After my first beer I could already feel my inhibitions leaving my body.  By the time Randall arrived I had 3 down the hatch and I was in full drunk mode.  As he walked in the door I had my Pandora Cold Play channel blaring since Randall likes to mock the fact that I like Cold Play.

If I wasn’t so drunk I would have thought to play this as he stepped in the door.

I carried on drunk conversation while Randall tried to catch up with a few “normal” Bud Lights.  I found that doing race prep while drunk is not a great idea.  I almost forgot a few important details in the process as a result.  Randall and I didn’t get to bed until after 11, not an ideal bed time when the alarm is set for 3:45 am.

I woke up feeling a bit fuzzy from the BLP’s.  I wound up having to be Randall’s alarm clock as well, knocking on the bedroom door about 15 minutes before we needed to get out the door.

We got on site for the race right around 5am, giving us a full 3 hours of pre-race time to make sure everything was in order.  Despite all that effort, we still had issues keeping the pre-race scene as organized/efficient as we would like.

Once the sun came up Randall hopped into his event photographer role in earnest, using Ali’s camera to take as many pictures as he could.  I was busy scurrying around once all the equipment was set up, kind of making sure things were running ok.  We had long lines at the pre-registration table and the timing chip hand out table.  These could have been mitigated with more bodies and maybe someone on a bull horn trying to get people to stand in the appropriate line.

I drove down to the start line with Ali in the truck, knowing I would need the truck to get me back to the finish line in time due to the multiple wave start we used this year for the race.  First the runners went, then the runners with dogs and finally the walkers, with each wave being split up by about a minute.  Even with utilizing the truck, I only got the finish line up and running two minutes before the first runner crossed the line, a little too close for comfort.

Timing the event went very smoothly, especially compared to all the issues I had the prior weekend with the half marathon.  This was the first time we used the chip times for official placing instead of gun time.  No one seemed to notice the difference.

We got off site somewhere around 10:30.  Ali thanked Randall for coming over and taking pictures.  This was the first time we didn’t stick around until the Humane Society opens at 11 to tour the building.  The race finished with 721 participants, a great number, but actually down from last year by about 60 people.

Once we got home I plowed through my post race crap while Randall hung out.  He had to cut out mid-afternoon so our normal tradition of physical challenges, bike rides or video game marathons just wasn’t going to happen.  Instead I asked Randall if he wanted to go hit the Miromar Outlets for lunch in the SSR.  It would allow for a decent topless SSR drive, food and hitting a few of my favorite outlets.

We ate first, I was pretty hungry by the time I got there.  We ate at Luna Rossa, a decent Italian place with outdoor seating.  So shortly after our food arrives some black guy gets on the mic and announces he is going to be providing entertainment via song.

Well it was awful.  First of all the volume on the sound system was turned up so loud that having conversation with the person across the table from you required that you nearly had to scream.  Second, the guy just wasn’t that good, it felt like we were sitting in on karaoke night where the theme was “music they would play on the Love Boat”.  I am not sure who at the restaurant thought that their patrons would enjoy being serenaded badly by this guy but they were sadly mistaken.  If anything it made me eat faster so I could get the fck out of there.

We then hit our core fav outlets, Oakley, Nike, Under Armour and Adidas.   I picked up some new training pants from Adidas.  I went up a size from what I already had in my drawer at home which are mediums.  The mediums fit my waist but are borderline short on my long legs.  The larges I bought Saturday will almost fall off if I don’t use the draw string but they at least don’t look like “floods”.

I also snagged a nice but cheap ($10) hat from the Under Armour outlet.  I figured it would work out well when I go cruising with Jeremy in his pimped out Hyundai Sonata Hybrid.

Once we got back to the house Randall had to pack up and head back out.  He was going to cheer on his girlfriend at her half marathon on Sunday.  They were heading down to Miami later Saturday night.  I thanked Randall for coming over and supporting Ali’s race .  Hopefully I get to go over there and hang with him sometime soon.

Saturday night I went to see Hansel & Gretel.  In a way it made me think of the Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter movie that flopped badly when I first saw it advertised.  Turning a children’s story into an action movie seemed like an odd transformation. Despite those thoughts going in, I came out of the movie thoroughly pleased.

If you are looking for a movie with complex plot, deep characters and a long storyline, you are in the wrong place.  If you want a movie with lots of head splattering, body exploding, steam punk weapon toting,  hot chick action then this is the movie for you.  I may have dropped a couple IQ points while watching the film but it was fun from start to finish. B+

Sunday was a weird day but certainly not because of the weather, which was just about perfect.  I had a number of things to get done.  I have not had a “normal” weekend for going on 4 weeks so I had a bunch of stuff to handle outdoors. Weeding and tending to the garden was quite tedious after 3 weeks of neglect.  Despite the neglect, the garden currently has a large supply of red lettuce, kale, onions, broccoli and leeks that are ready for harvesting.  I am hoping to freeze a bunch of the broccoli so it doesn’t go to waste.

After weeding I next tackled taking down the Christmas lights that had been up and shining for almost exactly two months.  I am sure many of the people in the neighborhood were wondering why I still had lights on a week away from the start of February.  Well the answer was simply I liked the way they looked.

Taking down the lights is always a bit of a somber experience for me.  This year it was more so than usual because of my new situation.  Sunday in general was a weird day for me emotionally.  I had moments of stupid sillyness like when I recorded this:

or when I made this sign for Nicki.

But I also had various moments of stinging, strong sadness where my mind was dwelling on things that I don’t normally dwell on.  It was a major bummer.

I tried to insulate myself from the melancholy by keeping busy.  I mowed the grass and weed whacked mid-afternoon and then when I took the dogs back to Ali’s place I worked on several things she needed help with until after 7.

On the plus side, I am hoping to get out the weeds now that January is almost complete.  I have 3 weeks until my next race that I have to time.  I am hoping to use these weeks to get firmly back into my routines that help keep my inner demons at bay.

 

 

Let me take a deep breath and begin….

I left work early on Tuesday so I could knock out the myriad of trip related details without having to rush around.  Later I picked up the dogs, figuring since I planned to leave very early in the morning, hopefully 5AM, it made sense to have them sleep at the house Tuesday night.  I packed the van with as much as I could ahead of time and laid down early to sleep since the alarm was set for 3:45AM. Nicki did a number two right before bed so I figured we were good to go.

Several hours  later I found myself awake.  I noticed the room smelled.  At first I laid there with my eyes closed thinking that what I smelled was just Nicki’s old dog smell.  After looking at the clock and seeing it was 1:30 am I wondered if I should get up and give her a bath before we left.  Who wants a stinky dog in a van for 4 days?

So after debating if I really wanted to drag myself out of bed at this ridiculous time, the persistent smell convinced me.  So I get up and flip on the bathroom light to pee.  The true source of the smell comes into focus, a pile of muddy shit on one of the bathroom mats.  Great…..

So while holding my breath and averting my gaze from the excrement, I carried the mat out to the hose by the driveway in my underwear and blasted the shit off into the grass.  I then carried the mat inside and immediately tossed it in the washing machine to de-defecate it.  I grabbed a scented candle and carried it back to the bathroom so it could burn up the residual stench.

I stopped dead in my tracks when my eyes focused on ANOTHER fresh pile of diarrhea on another mat. Oh my GOD. While I was cleaning the first pile, Nicki had created a second.  I asked Nicki, like I expected her to answer me “Why???”  The question wasn’t why she had diarrhea, it was why she no longer makes an effort to let me know that she needs to go outside ASAP.  No, instead she just finds the closest grass-like substance and lets loose.  I was shocked and just repeated the same hose and washing machine path for the second mat.  I just could not believe of all times for this to be happening it was the morning I was supposed to be shoving off for PA.

Well if I am nothing else, I am determined and I was going to find a way to still carry out the trip as planned.  The optimist in me hoped that this was just an isolated incident.  There was no way I was going to be able to fall back asleep after this fiasco so I sat down in front of my computer and ate Pop Tarts at 2:15 am while I flipped through my email and FB feed.  I figured I would turn this into a positive, allowing us to get on the road even earlier.

I loaded up the final components in the van and piled both dogs in the back.  We pulled out of the driveway at 3:30 AM, before my alarm was supposed to actually go off.

The drive was going fine, obviously at that time of morning there isn’t going to be much traffic on the road.  I had gotten a few miles onto I-4 by around 6AM.  Nicki had just been sleeping in the bed the entire time like I hoped she would.

Well all of a sudden I hear Nicki make a slight crying noise.  I glance back in the rear view mirror and see she is standing up and starting to circle.  I knew what was going to happen.  I yelled back to Nicki to LAY DOWN as I tried to figure out how close I was to an exit.  I was a couple miles from the next one.  Well a few moments later the stench hit me and I knew it was too late. Nicki had shit in the van.  She hadn’t shit in a vehicle since she was a young pup when she let loose in the back of the Sentra when Ali and I were on the way to work.

I rolled down the windows and got off the next available exit.  I had brought a roll of paper towels with just in case but I needed some additional supplies to address the toxic waste pile.  I found a 24 hour CVS and parked the van off in a far corner by some bushes, not wanting to expose other patrons to the spectacle of cleaning up dog shit.

I enter the store and locate a bottle of Resolve carpet cleaner and anti-bacterial Febreeze.  I am sure the clerk was wondering that the fck I was up to at 6AM buying cleaning products.  I head back out to the van and open the back doors.  Both Nicki and Sadie are on the bed laying on a clean area of the bed.  They had a front row seat as I began the disgusting clean up process.

I first used the paper towels to remove as much as I could.  There was no trash can nearby so I stuffed the brown paper towels in the bushes, hey it is biodegradable and at that point I just wanted to finish the clean up process.  After removing the “solids” I soaked the spot with Resolve and then followed up with a generous application of Febreeze.  The spot looked better.

Despite the latest incident I still was holding onto the idea that Nicki would still be able to make the trip, after all her gut had to be empty at this point.  Well that hope finally evaporated when I opened the side door of the van.  ANOTHER pile of shit was waiting for me.  Evidently while I was inside CVS Nicki hopped down and dumped again.

I blurted out, “Nicki you HAVE to be kidding me!” but as soon as I saw her with her ears down and trembling I instantly lost any desire to scold her, obviously there was something seriously wrong and obviously I just could not take her on a 1300 mile drive to Western PA. So now my mind was racing to decide what to do.

After cleaning up the second pile from the rug I tried calling Ali.  It was right around 6:30 so I knew that more than likely Ali would be asleep.  I also knew that she almost always has her cell phone on silence so the odds of my call waking her up were slim to none.  I got no answer as expected and left a message outlining the situation and my plan which was to turn around, head south and hopefully meet Ali somewhere in between.

After leaving the message I continued trying to call, hoping the repeated vibration sound may wake Ali up.  I hopped back in the van and headed south, continuing to call every few minutes until she finally answered.  I told her what went down and that I was heading south.  Ali agreed there was no way Nicki could make the trip and agreed to hop in her car and head north to meet me.

As we headed towards each other we would send quick updates at what exit we were at.  At one point Ali called me and asked if maybe I should just cancel the trip altogether.  This incident was complicated by the fact that Ali was supposed to fly up to PA the next day.  She thought it would be simpler (for her) if I just bagged the trip, which it would have been obviously.  I told her I still wanted to do the trip, not just because I had already started it but because Patrick had made arrangements to come and see me as well as my Dad making and paying for both a hotel and plane ticket for his trip back.  She wasn’t thrilled but I really wanted to still go.

So we met up at exit 179, a full 80 or 85 mile back track for me and did the transfer.  It was very sad for both of us.  Sad for me to leave Nicki behind and sad for Ali to see Sadie pull away.  At Nicki’s age and physical condition, who knows how many more opportunities I will have to take her on a road trip.  Thinking about that brought several tears to my eyes as I once again headed northward.

As I was driving I got updates from Ali about Nicki and they weren’t good.  She had more shitting incidents in Ali’s car, at her apartment and then in the office of the emergency vet.  I was really worried about her.  Ali made arrangements to fly up one day later which allowed her to tend to Nicki as well as get caught up at work on some things that needed to be attended to.

After a long and very expensive day ($1100 bill) at the emergency vet she was released with a diagnosis of canine irritable bowel syndrome, something you hear with humans pretty regularly.  It can be brought on by stress.  Well the sight of suitcases always stressed Nicki out and heading out on the road without Alison probably piled on to Nicki’s stress levels, she always has been very emotionally sensitive.

The vet prescribed some very bland dog food that Nicki was supposed to eat exclusively for 4-6 weeks.  That meant NO treats.  Nicki LOVES treats, denying her those is going to be filled with many confused and disappointed dog stares.  The good news was that since the new food the problem has subsided and Nicki’s demeanor and energy level definitely seems better.  Ali got some more good news when she found out the pet insurance her and I split the cost of was covering almost the entire vet bill.

So anyway, the 160 mile back track totally erased the benefit of pulling out at 3:30 am.  I was now behind schedule.  I dropped the hammer and settled in for what I knew was going to be a VERY long day.  Although I had a ton of miles to cover I made a number of quick stops for bathroom breaks, lunch and gas stops, trying to combine functions wherever possible. I also wanted to get Sadie out of the van to walk around as much as possible.  Riding shotgun in a van for endless hours is not fun for a dog.

I stopped for gas approximately every 300 miles or so.  At that mileage the van gas gauge was reading half full.  It meant to fill the van would require 18-19 gallons of fuel which would keep the credit card charge under the limit that some pumps enforce of either $75 or $100.

I decided I was going to track the gas mileage I was getting during the trip, something Ali used to do during our various western road trips.

At each stop I would jot down the total trip mileage, the gallons used and the mpg calculated quickly on my Iphone.  My mileage during each segment varied based on the terrain I was traveling, the outside temperature and the speed I was trying to maintain.  I definitely noticed that my mileage got better the colder the air outside became.

The drive northward became one mind numbing mile after mile.  You literally zone out and stop thinking about the many hours you spent behind the wheel and the hours you have yet to go.

I passed the time by listening to the full 5 hour stern show and then switching over to podcasts.

The auxiliary speaker system I rigged for my phone was pretty funny. I plugged my AC/DC inverter into the 12 volt plug in the rear of the van.  I then used an extension cord to the driver area where I had a pair of Sony computer speakers which I plugged into the cord.  I then ran the input cord of the speakers to the headphone jack of my Iphone.  It looked ridiculous and trashy but it allowed me to clearly hear my podcasts over the road noise.  Sadie didn’t appear to mind my rig job at all.

Considering my day started at 1:30 AM, staying alert while driving was challenging at times. I utilized a combination of coffee and a 5 hour energy to keep dangerous road drowsiness at bay.

As we headed north the temps were steadily declining.  I got my first glimpse of snow in northern North Carolina while I was walking Sadie.  In the shade was a tiny, fist sized pile of snow that had not melted yet. As we continued we ran into larger and larger piles of snow which Sadie was interested in exploring.

I finally stopped around 10 pm in northern North Carolina at a Comfort Inn in Jonesville.  They took pets although they slap $15 bucks on top of the regular room rate to do so.

You could tell this was an old hotel that they gave a face lift to with a coat of paint and new furnishings in the room.  However the bathroom door that would not stay closed revealed the true identity of the place.

Neither Sadie or I cared at that point.  After 19 hours on the road all we wanted was a place to lay down.  I slept fine although I set the alarm to make sure I was up and back out on the road by a little after 6am.

I had made arrangements to stop by my sister’s place on the ride up, she lives about two hours from my dad in State College.  She had moved back to PA after many years of living in Arizona.  Wow, what a change for her.  Her yard was covered under a layer of snow as I pulled into the driveway.

I hadn’t seen Torrin or the kids since our family trip to Ireland in August of 2011.  The house they bought in State College was a fixer upper that is still in the process of being fixed.  As Torrin described all of the things that were done since October I was amazed my brother-in-law found the time to do all of it while holding down a full time job as well.  It sounded pretty grueling.

Emily and Griffin presented me with some artwork they made for me when I walked in the door, it was very cute.  Unfortunately both of them had been sick all week.  I was doing my best to avoid any sort of contact that could spread illness to me as that was the last thing I needed.

Torrin was walking around with a horrible limp.  She had knee surgery in October to repair a meniscus problem, something I have had done twice.  Well her recovery has not gone well and the knee remains swollen and inflexible, possibly in worse shape than when she started.  I had similar issues after my first knee surgery, luckily my second surgery went better.

Sadie was quite interested in checking out Torrin’s place, she was roaming around sniffing everything she could get her nose on. I spent a couple hours at Torrin’s place catching up before I headed out since my step mom was preparing dinner.

The drive as I got close to my dad’s place became pretty treacherous.  It was now dark and the two lane road I was traveling seemed narrow because of the plowed snow lining either side.  In addition the road was twisting and was up and down hilly, wooded terrain.  I found myself going at least 5 mph under the posted 55mph speed limit in many spots because it felt unsafe to go much faster.

The driving was made worse by the large trucks that apparently use this road as a shortcut between two major highways.  The oncoming headlights of the fast moving tractor trailers made the road feel even more narrow and I found myself looking for room on the right that didn’t exist.

I was quite glad to finally pull into dad’s place.  Dad’s driveway was coated in ice and the cold air bit into my exposed skin.  Sadie didn’t seem to mind at all and immediately started investigating the surroundings.  When I went to the door Clara and Sadie came running out, in no time the three of them were running around the snow covered property having a blast. They seemed to have no conerns for the icy spots as they sprinted across them without hesitation.

After bringing in all my stuff and letting the dogs burn off some energy we retreated to the warmth of the house, heated by the wood stove in the middle of the living space.  It felt good.

Teresa made a really nice vegetable pie for dinner.  After the meal we sung happy birthday to dad (his 66th) and enjoyed the chocolate cup cakes that were also home made.  Teresa made a TON of food for the visit, she loves to cook/bake for guests. It’s a good thing because I love to eat her food. 🙂

We spent the remainder of Thursday night catching up.  Sadie quickly reacclimated herself to my dad’s place, digging into Maggie and Clara’s toys as well as staking claim to her favorite chair.  When dad went to bed and I was taking my shower all three dogs were up in his bed at one point. It was cute.

There were quite a few moments where I felt bad that was Nicki was not along to take part in the fun although I am not sure how actively she could have participated.

On Friday Patrick was supposed to show up around lunch.  Dad and I started the day walking around his property, following the path he plowed out with the tractor.  There was dense fog everywhere, the end result of the warming temperatures.

The dogs could care less, they had tons of fun running around and playing.  There was a funny moment went Clara got run over by Sadie.  Sadie hit her in the side and sent Clara into a barrel roll.

The weather forecast called for substantial rain to be moving in along with warmer temperatures.  We decided to head to a near by wilderness area to hike with the dogs before Pat showed up.  The park looked like a winter wonderland with the ground still covered in a thick layer of snow.

Despite never stepping foot in the place before, Sadie took the lead dog role, normally trotting a good 20-25 yards ahead of us.  The trail had a number of small snow covered bridges that cris-crossed the small creek that runs along the path.  Sadie found these bridges a lot of fun for some reason.  She would run across them even if we weren’t going that direction and then coming running back to us with a big dog smile on her face.

We got back to the house shortly before Patrick pulled in.  By the time he arrived the rain had started and the great melt off began in earnest.  In the span of 36 hours  practically all the snow would be gone.

Friday afternoon Pat, Dad and I headed to the local Marienville bar to shoot some longboard, otherwise known as table top shuffleboard.  The place was empty except for the three of us at first.  I guess mid-day on Fridays isn’t a big drinking time.

I hadn’t played longboard in years, we did a double elimination tournament.  Patrick beat my dad and I.  He killed me, I just had no sense of how hard I needed to be pushing at first.  My dad and I then played to see whom would go on to face Pat.  I found my touch and beat my dad and then almost came back and beat Patrick after making a huge comeback, scoring 9 points in a single round.  I wound up losing 16-14.  It was a lot of fun.

Patrick’s girlfriend Maureen showed up later Friday evening, we were already involved in a game of Risk.  I thought I had played Risk before but when Patrick explained the game to me I realized I had it confused with Stratego.  Patrick was playing for both himself and Maureen until she arrived. Evidently Pat takes his Risk very seriously, there was a knock em down drag it out game over Christmas that I heard stories about.

I loosely understood the rules based on the explanation Pat gave me but once the invading started in earnest I realized I didn’t have a solid layout of armies.  I was the second person eliminated although I took pleasure in helping to coach Maureen whom had a big lead when I stepped into the shower.  In the span of 10-15 minutes Patrick had turned things around and was stomping on the remaining players.  When the time limit was reached he was the victor.

We had hoped to get some sledding in on Saturday down the big hills in the back of the property.  The rain and warm temps had consumed all but an inch or two of snow and what remained was dripping wet.  We would have been muddy and soaked in no time so we bagged the sledding idea.

Later in the morning I came up with the idea of going to the movies.  At first we were thinking about going to see The Hobbit but the start time and location would have made making our 6pm dinner reservation difficult to do. We instead decided to go see Lincoln, a movie I heard from multiple people was very good.

The theater we went to was located in the Seneca Mall.  I had to laugh when we stepped inside.  It literally felt like I just stepped through a time warp and had entered the Berkshire Mall in 1978.  It looked like the place opened decades ago and never underwent any update in the decor.  I found it endearing in a way.

The movie theater was also old school with a total of 5 screens.  I was surprised that the theater for Lincoln was pretty full for a film that had been out for several weeks.  This was the first theater I could recall that was hot.  As soon as I sat down I ripped off my coat and rolled up the sleeves of my long sleeve shirt.  The floor of the aisles had a very old school feel, so sticky that it felt like your shoe was going to get ripped off with each step. We sat down literally seconds before the movie started.

I found the movie interesting and educational.  I learned some details about the Civil War that cleared up some fuzzy spots about what went down.  Daniel Day Lewis did a fantastic job portraying Lincoln and overall I liked the film.  I’d give it a B+.  The opinions of our group were mixed afterward.  Teresa and Maureen liked the movie, my dad and Patrick didn’t, oh well.

The driving all day Saturday was very treacherous due to the horrible fog created by all of the snow melting.  It may have been the worst fog I ever have driven in.  I had a very tight grip on the wheel and did not feel any guilt for driving 5-10 under the speed limit at times.  When we left for dinner it was even worse because of the darkness.  At times you literally could only see maybe 25 feet in front of the vehicle.

Dinner was at a place called the Gateway Lodge.  Inside it looked and felt just like a rustic ski lodge, minus the ski slopes.  It was warm, cozy and inviting.  We all enjoyed large meals followed by incredibly rich and calorie packed deserts.  We all felt like pretty large pigs by the end of the meal.

The fog blinded ride back was again treacherous.  I was very happy to arrive safely back at the house without putting a dent in the party van’s exterior.

When we got back we flipped on the dramatic end to the Ravens/Broncos game and then flipped over to the 49ers game.  Patrick is a big Niners fan.  I made it to the end of the first half before packing it in.  I was happy for Pat when I saw the next morning that they won rather easily with a strong second half.

Sunday morning I decided I needed some exercise.  The combination of food over indulgence and a lack of bodyweight training had me feeling fat and lazy.  I told Patrick I was going to go for a run, despite only having his very old running sneakers along, he said he would join me.

I have talked before about how good of a runner Pat is, he actually qualified for the Boston Marathon a couple years ago and once ran a 5K in a blistering 18 minutes.  I knew I was going to have my work cut out running with him.

My plan was to run the length of Gilfoyle Road, where the house is located.  It is situated between two major roadways, route 66 and 899.  I would run to the one end, turn around, run to the other end and then back track to dad’s driveway.

The area dad lives in is very, very hilly. Gilfoyle road has a lot of ups and downs, one in particular that is pretty f’ing huge.  I decided to head to the right first which took us up some smaller hills and down the massive one.  I kept a pace that was manageable but fast for me.  I am sure for Pat it was cruise control pace.

As we approached the bottom of the big hill it felt like we stepped into a refrigerator.  In the valley there was still a decent amount of snow on the ground due to the shade.  As we ran through the accompanying fog the temps felt like they were at least 10 degrees colder.

So we reached the turn around and headed back towards the massive hill.  I just am not used to this sort of running from my ultra-flat Florida training back ground.  Despite this I did my best to keep moving along.  It was even difficult for Pat but not difficult enough that he couldn’t keep carrying on a conversation.

As we ascended the hill I was unable to blurt out more than a one or two word response as I was struggling mightily.  As we were about 50-75 yards from the crest I told Pat I had to walk a bit, I was just sucking wind too hard.  It annoyed the shit out of me to walk, especially when the crest was so close but I just had run out of steam.  After reaching the crest we immediately started running again.  I was able to handle the remaining hills which all felt small in comparison.

It felt good to get some exercise in and  I appreciated Pat running with me.  He is such a good kid.  I always enjoy his company.

Pat and Maureen headed back to Pittsburgh a little after lunch.  It was great to see both of them.  There is an outside chance Pat might come down to run the Hooters Half Marathon with me in March.  That would be a blast.

On Sunday afternoon we headed out for another hike to another forest trail.  It was much different than our first hike as now the snow was almost completely gone, leaving behind a wet muddy mess.    Of course the dogs didn’t mind and once again had a great time exploring and playing.

They were all relegated to the back of the Subaru as they all were a mess.  Mud was a common theme once the snow melted.  Each time we would bring the dogs in through the garage we made a pit stop to try to wipe down the lower half of their bodies as much as possible so they wouldn’t track dirt into the house.  We were only moderately successful in our efforts.

The rest of our Sunday was low key.  We watched football and hung out.  We planned to head out for Florida very early Monday morning.  I said my goodbyes to Teresa, Maggie and Clara before going to bed since they wouldn’t be getting up to see us off.  I always feel sad saying goodbye to the dogs and Teresa, I enjoy their company so much, I wish they didn’t live so far away. Sadie was definitely depressed when we pulled out without her friends.

I got out of bed at 4AM Monday morning and did the final prep work.  By the time dad came out of the bedroom at 4:30 I had the van packed and pretty much ready to go.  I had the GPS programmed and ready to go, depite dad’s dislike of the devices.  He particularly dislikes the robotic voice used for turn by turn directions.  As a compromise I muted the voice.

Dad does have a pretty amazing sense of direction which I guess was developed during his years as a salesman.  I remember his work vehicles always had maps in them.  He can remember how to get to places after only visiting them once or twice, a skill that definitely was not passed down to me.  He views GPS’s as cheating in some way.

The first 2/3 of the drive on Monday was pretty awful.  It was a combination of cold, windy, rainy and foggy that made driving treacherous.  Once again I found just doing the speed limit at certain times to be a risky decision.

Sadie wasted no time utilizing dad’s lap as a bed.  She spent hours up front sprawled across his legs.

Originally dad and I had talked about splitting the driving duties between us, I would drive a couple hundred miles and then he could do the same.  However once we got underway I felt better about staying behind the wheel full time.

The shitty weather and shitty traffic at times and dad’s recent driving history made my driving feel necessary.  I supplemented with coffee and another 5 hour energy so I felt fine.  I am accustomed to logging long miles in the drivers seat, something dad gave up years ago.

Finally the weather started to break and I was able to make some decent time.  Dad had thought we might not pull into our Pooler, GA stop until around 10PM.  Instead we wound up walking in a little after 7.  It was a long 14 hour day of driving but that is a lot better than the 19 hours I put in driving up on day one.

Before we arrived at the La Quinta dad told me when we arrived I should just stay in the van with Sadie.  I asked why.  He said we could bring Sadie in a side door, he didn’t want to tell the front desk we had a dog.  I was even more dumbfounded.  La Quinta welcomes dogs and they don’t charge an extra fee for bringing one.  I asked dad why he would want to hide the fact that we had a dog?

He said he didn’t like the idea of us being forced to a dog only room.  I had to laugh.  I told dad that I had absolutely no issue staying in a dog only room and that in fact I thought it was pretty inconsiderate to do what he proposed.  I am sure the hotel likes to keep certain rooms animal free for guests that may have something like pet allergies.  It is a very reasonable practice.

Dad has a long and glorious track record of getting offended/annoyed by things that if you pause and think them through, have little to no merit.  In this particular situation I could already see how the scenario would potentially play out.  Dad doesn’t reveal we have a dog.  We get put in a non-pet room.  Hotel staff sees we have a dog and then tells dad he has to pay an extra cleaning fee for not revealing we had a dog.  Then dad would fly off the handle ranting about being charged a fee and then declare he would never stay in a La Quinta again, all over an issue that he totally manufactured himself.

I went in to the front desk with him to make sure this scenario did not have a chance to play out.  Despite his many years on the planet, Dad still seems to have a hard time determining exactly what battles are worth fighting and which are not.  Not to mention manufacturing conflict when none needs to exist.

Personally, I am very much a counter puncher.  I am normally laid back but if you take the first swing or give me a a good reason to be pissed off then game on.  However I do not go looking for problems. Dad seems to look for them.

If dad tried to persist with this ruse I had already planned to compare it to asking for a non-smoking room and then smoking a pack in bed once you are in it.  It would be a pure a-hole move.  Moral of the story, don’t be an a-hole for no good reason.

Our pet room turned out to be quite nice with two queen beds.  For dinner I offered to run to Cracker Barrel for take out, something I didn’t know they offered until I called and checked.

I was amazed at how nice the waitress was that helped me was.  I told her I was a vegetarian so she suggested I make a plate out of various sides.  She went down the sides and marked all of them that were made with beef/chicken stock so I could skip those.

While I was waiting for the food she brought out my diet soda in a cup.  When she came back out with the food she brought out another soda, saying she figured I finished the first one while I was waiting (I hadn’t) but what a nice thing to do.

She went through the order and identified everything in the bag and made sure I had adequate cornbread and biscuits as well as spoons, knives and forks.  She was so nice I gave her a 5 buck tip on the $14 bill.  I almost felt like I should give her 10.

On the way back into the hotel lobby I flashed the bag of food at the cute young girl behind the counter, saying I didn’t know Cracker Barrel did take out.  She rubbed her stomach and said I was making her hungry.  I thought I would surprise her by coming back down with cornbread and biscuits we didn’t need.  I held up the bag and said they were all hers if she wanted them.  She said it was ok but thanked me for offering.  She actually got my attention later when I was coming in with Sadie to tell me again it was really nice of me to offer. She had huge boobs, just saying.

Dad and I were up and back on the road after enjoying an early 6AM breakfast. I made some seriously good time on day 2 of driving, the weather was good and the roads were clear.  We wound up pulling into the house by 3PM even with the food, pee, gas and dog walk stops.  I again did all the driving that day.

Dad and I got to do a lot of talking on the trip, sometime that conversation got difficult.  For a good portion of the ride dad was in the second row of seats.  He would be talking to me but when I would say something back 95% of the time he couldn’t hear me.  Dad’s hearing is not good anymore but he has not invested in a hearing aid. The combo of the road noise and me having to talk with my head facing the road made two way conversation very difficult even with me talking at a high volume level.

It felt good to get home.  As we got close to home dad had a wave of tiredness hit him.  When we got home I walked in with just the mail in my hand.  Dad asked if there was anything else that had to come in yet.  I said of course, I just had the mail.  I could tell he was in Walking Dead mode so I encouraged him to just go into the bedroom and take a nap which he did.

I spent the next few hours bringing stuff in, putting stuff away, doing laundry and attending to other things that pop up when you are out of the house for nearly a week.  A little after 6 we loaded Sadie back in the van and took her to Ali’s to be reunited.  Nicki was quite glad to see us all.  She looked to be doing much better compared to the “shitty” state I last saw her in, pun intended.

This was the first time my dad saw Ali since the split so I am sure it was a bit weird for him.  Still we all caught up while chowing down on some pizza.

Yesterday the majority of my day was spent doing prep for the half marathon I am timing this weekend.  I had a lot of things to handle and will continue to have a lot to do until the race goes down.  I feel a bit bad that dad has to kind of entertain himself for the most part but he said he is fine just chilling.  He has a couple books to read, he went out for coffee and even got a much needed hair cut yesterday.

The total mileage logged on the trip was 3,062, quite a chunk for 4 days of driving.  If you want to see all 96 pictures I took from the trip you can take a look here.

Overall it turned out to an enjoyable adventure although with the way things started I was not quite sure it would ever get off the ground.  We touched base on everything I wanted to do and then some, I’d call it a win.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I look back at the title of last year’s end of year blog entry, “2011 the best year yet?” it seems quite ironic considering what has transpired since that time in my life.

Ok let’s handle the easy stuff first, scoring the goals I set for 2012.

Get the master bedroom and bathroom painted – CHECK, splitting up for some reason gave me the kick in the ass I needed to finally get those two rooms painted after a couple years of procrastinating.  It was a huge pain in the ass doing this solo.

Replace carpet – nope, that won’t be happening anytime soon.

Resurface the pool deck – no but it really needs to be done.  I hope to contact Rhinoshield sometime in 2013 to do it.

Run a sub two hour half marathon – BINGO, I killed the Hooter’s Half, running it in 1:55 (knocking 16 minutes off previous best) and change in pretty horrible conditions with minimal training leading up to it.  That was a testament to pure mental will power more than anything else.

Complete the BBR’s (Bar-barian Requirements) – Nope, not close.  I tried to really train hard for this early in 2012 and kept hurting myself from overuse injuries.  I just don’t know that a 45 year old body of my size and proportion can recover fast enough to get it done.  Regardless I am going to still try, hard.

Another Tough Mudder – yep but surprisingly not with Randall.  Instead Charlie and I took down the course which featured a colder ice bath and much more “shocking” finish line.

Volleyball – Um I think I played a tournament.  Oh yea, I played with Tabby and then did a King of the Beach thing with Tabby, Randall and Jeremy.  Vball is just an afterthought in my life anymore.

Travel more – umm well the separation derailed pretty much all travel plans for me, I think the most traveling I did was by tire to Miami a couple times and Titusville

SSR upgrades – yea I did a number of upgrades including the expensive in dollars and time radio upgrade.  I also had a Corvette clutch installed in the truck as well as two new cat convertors, muffler, exhaust tips and panhard bar.  I have put about 6,000 miles on the SSR in my first full year of ownership.

Cranking up my overall happiness – hmmm well the separation from Alison was an effort to do just that on both of our part. It’s too early to make a final call on how successful the move will be.  To say there have been a few ups and downs would be a large understatement.

Ok so let me recap the high and lowlights of 2012.

In 2012 I gave up most meat (beef,pork poultry, etc..) the only meat I consume at this point is seafood and not much of that.  Alison has been a vegetarian for years but I had continued on my carnivore ways.  Well for me the moment I decided to stop for good was at the county fair.  As we were walking around the farm animal displays which included pigs and cattle I looked at these animals and took pause.  Instead of the normal, “aren’t they cute” and move on response, I looked long and hard at the faces of these animals.  I asked myself why it is that I would want to have these innocent animals killed to become a frozen patty on a plate.  I decided at that moment I didn’t want that and have not looked back.

I  haven’t noticed any fall off in my physical well being since making the change.  If anything, 2012 had the most personal physical bests I ever jammed into a 12 month period.

I did a lot of auto maintenance work in 2012, most of which was taped and published on YouTube.  I did brake jobs, replaced starters, alternators, IAC valves and more.  There is something very satisfying about fixing your own vehicle.

Speaking of YouTube, in 2012 I developed a an advertising juggernaut utilizing primarily YouTube and the ads that can be run with your videos.  I had a meteoric rise in monthly ad dollars and before my AdSense account got cancelled I had made almost $100 in one month.  The cancellation of my AdSense account was the source of much frustration and anger.

At first the anger was directed towards Google and their no warning cancellation policy when it comes to AdSense terms.  But in the end the anger should have been at myself for not thinking through recommending people to click on my blog ads.  I did not realize I was inviting others to violate the Adsense TOS.

I was really bummed out about the cancellation but I eventually got the ad dollar wheels turning again, making my mom into a new AdSense user and totally recreating my YouTube channel which took endless HOURS of work.  The main reason you see as many YouTube videos out of me as you do is not actually just because I am a video whore, it’s also because I have all the ad dollars I make funneled right to my mom as a small financial shot in the arm.

In 2012 I fought FEMA and won, jumping through a ton of hoops (and a case of beer) to get a bogus flood insurance requirement dropped.  It was one of several cost disputing/cutting efforts of the year, many of which were necessitated to cut costs associated with the separation. I no longer have a number of services that I once did.  I have been able to shave my electric costs down remarkably, last month I had a bill of $106, insanely low when this same house used to generate bills as much as triple that number at times.

I haven’t had many visitors in the house this year, my dad, step mom, Patrick and his girlfriend visited back in February.  Randall and his girlfriend Tracy stayed for a long weekend and finally Charlie stayed for a very fun few days earlier this month.  Other than that it has been basically me, myself and I (and Tuki) most nights.

The news of course had many big things going down including several tragic shootings, the presidential election and the fact that the world did not end a few days ago.  But you already knew that.

So I guess I should talk more about the obviously biggest event of 2012 or the last decade and a half for that matter, the decision Ali and I made to separate.  We made the decision to do so in March and she moved to her own place in early April.  The decision was a mutual one that involved no shenanigans on either of our sides but instead a genuine effort for both of us to move ahead in our lives in a happier place than we both found ourselves. This decision shocked a lot of people as most viewed us as a solid couple that got along.  For the most part they were right.

The change for both of us has been filled with ruts and potholes as would be expected since both of us have basically been married for our entire adult lives. (two marriages for me)  The change that we both have had to deal with has been large and at times very, very uncomfortable.

I basically have been using it as an opportunity to force myself into new situations.  Whenever I found myself questioning if I should do something or not, I would ask myself “have I ever done this before?”  if the answer was no, then that pretty much meant I needed to do it. For example, jumping out of a plane from 18,000 feet in the air.

Of course part of this change involved setting my foot into the adult dating world.  It has not been easy or natural in the least. I have had enough awkward pauses to fill a sit com.  I may as well stepped foot into the middle of Siberia at times with how foreign the dating world feels.  Dating, for me, is hard.

Probably the hardest time of all has been this holiday season since it involved such painful items as separating Christmas ornaments and having our first Christmas morning where we woke up in different zip codes.

Many people are also very surprised with what Ali and my interaction has been like since the split.  In most cases when couples split there is a very clear division (like my first marriage), ours is not one of those cases.  Ali and I still are friends and support each other in different ways. We still interact and see each other on a regular basis.  It definitely has not followed the typical divorce 101 handbook.

I have had a lot of physical bests this year, despite turning 45 a couple weeks ago.  I did my first 110 pound weighted dip, first 90 pound weighted pull up, first one handed push up, first set of 10 dragon flags and many more.  One of my proudest accomplishments was pulling off a set of 30 pull ups a few weeks back, something that even surprised myself.  The sub 2 hour marathon and my second successful completion of the Tough Mudder were nice little feathers in the hat as well.

Of course at this age injuries are hard to avoid and I had my fair share of them, most recently the knee that was practically locked after the Mudder.  Who could forget the stupid injury to my bicep when I crashed trying to do weighted dips?  I also had a chronic problem with left wrist that lasted for damn close to 4 months.

The Eagles really sucked in 2012.  It was definitely the biggest waste of the NFL Sunday Ticket to date.

2012 has been a rough year for Nicki.  Her well being has taken a dramatic downturn since Ali and I split.  In what seems a blink of the eye she has gone from a healthy/active 9 year old dog, to an old girl that is showing every second of being 10.  The thyroid medicine she is on has made her hair long, dry and shaggy to the point where she looks dramatically different from just a year ago.  She is gimpy and slow, no longer able to run other than the occasional few step trot. She can’t be trusted to not dump in the house if left alone for more than a couple hours.  I can’t help but feel that is partly because of her reaction to the split and change in her living conditions.  It makes me feel guilty and sad.

You know I could really dig into the monthly entries and come up with more to blab about but if you are that interested about it use the BLOG ARCHIVES drop down menu and take a peek yourself.  There are some gems in there.

Ok so let’s talk about 2013 goals.

More than ever before, I go into this new year really, REALLY unsure about where my winding path will take me.  All that was familiar to me for so long is in the rear view mirror which can be both exciting and terrifying at the same time.

Home improvement goals are not major.  Getting the pool deck resurfaced/painted would be welcome.  Getting the hobby room and garage painted would be nice but far from important.  I have some outdoor projects to complete but none major enough to require mention here.

My physical goals are always about do it again, faster, better, more.  I’d like to run a half marathon quicker than I did last year. I want to get a 35 pull up set.  I want to be able to complete the old BB requirements.  A front lever, back lever, planche, controlled handstand and human flag are all objects on my radar as well.

Wow I can’t believe I finally got jumping out of a plane off my goal list.  It resided there for at least 5 or 6 years if not longer.

I hope to be able to do some traveling this year.  I have a couple visions in my head, one is top down in the SSR driving north and west until I run into the Pacific Ocean.  The other is traveling overseas to meet some of my international bar enthusiast friends.  There are quite a few whose hands I would like to shake (or cheeks to kiss).

Of course the number one personal goal is always happiness, continued (most of the time) health and an ability to both offer and absorb kindness/laughter/knowledge both to and from the world around me.

Peace.

And of course, a HUGE shout out to Randall…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking Dead is such a compelling show, I mean damn….. I just watched this week’s episode last night.  Of course I won’t spoil it, although it was inadvertently spoiled for me (didn’t really matter)  All I can say is if you are having trouble finding anything good to watch on TV, watch the show.

I just realized yesterday that I have a three day weekend coming up, that is a very nice feeling.  I have a race to time Saturday morning, after that I plan to take advantage of the cooler temperatures in the forecast to get some work done outside.

The primary target is the annual dreaded chore of tree trimming.  I pick this time of year to do it because of both weather conditions and the oncoming holidays.  In the past I always figured nicely trimmed trees will look better when I hang holiday lights on them.  However this year I haven’t decided what exactly I am going to do in regards to holiday decorations, if anything at all.

There is a part of me that enjoys coming home to a lit up house.  I also feel (maybe incorrectly) that people in our neighborhood appreciate my efforts since my house is driven by by most all of them because of it’s location on the street. I always have imagined they enjoy the fruits of my effort.

Regardless, the trees are getting trimmed this weekend and it WILL suck, that is assured.

I am feeling down once again, part of the roller coaster of highs and lows that I have experienced since embarking on my trip as a single adult 7 + months ago.  For some reason when I was on the outside, looking in, I didn’t think this would  be nearly as challenging and landmine filled as it has proven to be.    My response will be to just focus that energy into things and activities that have more assured returns on investment.

The clippers come out this weekend, I have found high and tight is most helpful when I get into this mode.  When 2013 rolls around and my new path is clearly defined it might make more sense to put more weight into establishing new relationships.

Well at least have the Eagles game to look forward to. Hah.

 

 

 

One of the guys that was at the pull up jam posted some footage he shot with his phone on FB.  It just happened to be while I was doing my pull up set.  You can get a good sense of the crowd that was gathered and why it was cool to have them cheering you on.

There were a bunch of professional looking videographers there that seemed to be filming everything.  I hope to find that footage at some point.  If you want to see the video this still was taken from, click here.

It seems hard to believe that October is here already.  That means that Halloween will be here in a blink with Thanksgiving and Christmas arriving shortly thereafter. (as long as the world doesn’t end)

I am dreading this holiday season for obvious reasons.  It will literally be the first Christmas I have not been in an active relationship with someone in something like 28 years.  Talk about a blue Christmas…

 

 

So since I went through all the time and effort to reestablish an AdSense account for my mom and a new channel on YouTube I was hoping my ad dollar side business would be ramping up quickly.  I finished up the migration of my YouTube channel last week and had all my videos turned on for monetization.  All that was left to do was wait for the ad views to start adding up.  There was one problem, it wasn’t happening.  Despite almost 4000 views of my new channel, when I looked in the Ad Sense account I saw very sporadic activity which was odd.  Some days there would be no ad money at all generated which didn’t make any sense.  Before I always had at least some money generated each day.

So yesterday I was digging around in my YouTube settings and got to a page regarding the AdSense connection.  It looked like although my account was turned on for monetization it did not automatically connect it to my AdSense account.  This seemed odd to me that this connection was not established when I turned on video monetization.  So I explicitly told YT to use the AdSense account under the same Google account name.

Later in the day I started to see the pennies start flowing into the account as they should be.  I am glad I figured out the missing link sooner rather than later. I’m sure my mom is as well.

Last night my dad called me.  He actually called me Friday night while I was eating dinner.  I told him I would call him back later in the weekend and it totally slipped my mind.

It had been a little while since I talked to dad.  We talked about various topics, we were on the phone for close to 45 minutes, an eternity for me when it comes to phone conversations.

Few people that read the blog know me well enough to know the rocky history I had with my dad growing up, especially once my parents split up when I was 12.  The 6 or 7 years after that were filled with many  tough times for both myself and him.  We butted heads many, many times.  There was a stretch of roughly 6 months where we totally excommunicated each other after I dropped out of college after one trimester.

For a good portion of that time I thought he was basically a jerk and I am sure he thought I was being a stupid kid, which in retrospect, I was in many ways.

Anyway at some point when I was a young adult we reconciled and to be honest I never looked back.  Although those years were painful for all involved they were also water under the bridge.  I made a conscious decision at that moment to deal with the present instead of dwelling on the past.

From that point on my relationship with dad has been much better.  As I aged myself, my perspective on what happened during that time period changed based on what I found myself dealing with as an adult.  I guess that is what is supposed to happen right?  When you become an adult you are supposed stop looking at things in a childish manner.

Make no doubt about it, dad is a flawed individual, just as we all are.  The incidents over the years where you wonder what the hell he was thinking approach legendary status at times. Yet, I think we both have a better understanding and appreciation of each other at this point.

The path dad and I have traveled to get to this point has been long, winding and littered with obstacles.  Despite our differences I know my dad is proud of how I turned out, with at least some degree of sanity, stability, and common sense.  I managed to find my way despite my many quirks and lack of college education, I am the only one of his five kids that is missing a degree.

I hope to get up to his place with the dogs sometime over the winter.

 

 

Well this weekend didn’t follow any traditional blueprint.  I had gone into it with two goals, get the oil changed in all three vehicles and pressure wash the pool deck/cage, one of my least favorite home maintenance tasks.

I tried to clear out some of the chores ahead of time by heading outside Friday evening and getting the weeding done.  While I was out there I snipped off some kale.  I figured I would try throwing it on top of my Friday night pizza.  I simply washed it off, cut it up a bit and threw it on top.  It actually turned out quite well.

So Saturday morning I tried firing up the pressure washer.  It didn’t want to start.  I have had this pressure washer for probably close to 10 years.  It already had a long term oil leak problem so I decided I was just going to get another washer.  After all, I had the mental target of getting the pool area cleaned so I had no choice, right? 🙂

I also told Ali I was going to pick up the dogs for the day.  Before I went to her place I stopped and got my oil change supplies which were substantial, in total I needed 16 quarts of oil and three filters.   It added up to a good chunk of change.  I softened the blow by utilizing 20 of my Autozone spiff dollars.

I then picked up the girls in the Tacoma and headed to Lowes to look at pressure washers.  I had a 10% off movers coupon I scammed off the Lowes website that I planned to use to save me a few bucks.

I found a Troybilt 3000 PSI model with a Honda motor that looked good.  It turned out the only one they had left was the display model.  I was a little leary about taking the display unit but the Lowes guy assured me it was just put together a couple days ago and should be fine, ok great.

When we got home I wanted to tackle the oil changes first.  All three fluid swaps went smoothly.  It’s funny how vehicles feel like they run better right after an oil change.  I’m sure it’s just my imagination though.

Next up was the shitty pressure washing, although having a new pressure washer to tackle the job admittedly made the job seem less arduous.   Well that feeling quickly faded and turned into frustration.

For the first 5 minutes of pressure washing I was really impressed, the new pressure washer felt noticeably stronger.  The higher pressure H2O was doing a great job of blasting green and black mildew off the white aluminum cage.

I had decided to do the outside of the pool cage first.  As I got around to the back side of the cage I noticed the pressure washer was acting strange.  When I would squeeze the trigger the engine would start to labor and the rpm’s would drop until I released it.  If I held the trigger long enough the motor would eventually shut off.  The longer I ran the washer, the worse this behavior became.  Eventually I could only blast water a few seconds at a time.

Well of course I was frustrated.  I got the new washer with the expectation it was going to make life easier.  Instead now I had to figure out what was wrong.  So I looked at a few things.  The water inlet looked clear and free of obstruction.  The oil level was a bit low so I added some.

The manual also said that having the water feed hose being longer than 50 feet could be a problem.  Well my hose was like 150 feet long but I never had an issue using a long hose with my other washer so I doubted that was the problem either.

So after checking out these things I started the washer back up and it ran great, for 2 or 3 minutes. Once again the erratic behavior returned.  I punched the off button angrily, knowing that there is SOMETHING wrong with this unit, damn display models…  The knowledge that I had to make a return trip to Lowe’s to address the problem did not make me smile.

It was now getting later in the afternoon and I had only scratched the surface of the pressure washing ahead of me.  I loaded the girls and the pressure washer back up in the truck and headed back to Lowe’s.  I told them there was something wrong with this one but I already know they didn’t have another one for me to exchange it with.  I figured I would just be getting my CC refunded and I would need to get one somewhere else.

The customer service rep checked with the Lowes in Estero and said they had 6 of them in stock.  She said I could go up there and get another one, not exactly convenient, but ok.  I was able to leave my problematic washer in Naples and headed up to Estero with a Lowes gift card they gave me to use to get the new washer to avoid having to redo the transaction on my credit card.

I threw my new in the box Troybilt in the back of the Tacoma, hoping to get better results although I knew I would not get time to try it out until Sunday. After dropping the dogs back off at Ali’s place I headed home.  I had time to put the new, new pressure washer together but that was it before I had to hop in the shower to get ready for a fund raiser.

The fund raiser was for the brother of a local triathlete/running club guy.  Actually it was to help raise funds to help his family travel to London to watch his brother compete in his first ever Olympic games in wrestling.

The event was very nice and turnout was strong.  There was a keg of beer and two pans of paella.  I actually watched and later helped a little bit in the paella preparation.  It was interesting to me to see how it all comes together.

I made sure to get my fair share of Bud Light throughout the evening as well.  I actually almost forgot to eat at all but eventually I grabbed a plate of the paella which was quite good.

I wound up spending the vast majority of the event outside helping out.  Compared to the other option of milling about and making small talk it was definitely the better option for me.

Ali was there, actually she was the one who told me about the event in the first place.  I really didn’t see/talk to her very much at all until the tail end of the evening.

At one point Jake got up in front of the crowd and gave a little presentation about his brother’s journey to the Olympics.  It was quite touching as he got choked up several times talking about it.  Obviously Jake is VERY close to his brother.

I stuck around to the very end of the event, helping with clean up duty, figuring it was a good idea to allow some time to pass before driving since I had a decent amount of Bud Lights.  Sean, my running club buddy with the same sounding but differently spelled name told me a bunch of people were going over to South Street, the place where I typically will hang out after board meetings.  Hmm well it was already after 10 at this point but I had no major plans for Sunday besides labor so I figured why not?

Well I had never been to South Street on a Saturday night, wow.  It was PACKED.  It was hopping with live music and alcohol flowing everywhere.  Our group had scored a table in the corner of the back room.  I sat down and just did some people watching, there was a LOT to see.

It was so loud in there it was difficult for me to carry on much conversation.  They had the Olympics showing on a number of the tv’s so that got a lot of my attention.  I also spent some time hanging on the outskirts of the bar with Sean.  The circle of people he knows is simply staggering, he is a true social butterfly.

Later in the night I was sitting back down at the table and was talking to Jake’s girlfriend.  Ironically, although I heard her earlier in the evening, it was only until later, when things quieted down a bit that I realized she had a British accent.  She seemed very nice.  She told me how her and Jake were heading over to London to see his brother compete and then are following up with a visit to Italy.  It sounds like a great trip.

So it was getting later and later and I was still there.  I had taken a 5 hour energy earlier.  I have to tell you, those things work.  I have used them several times in the last few months and without fail they seem to really combat the normal drowsiness that would hit me at anytime past 10PM.  It was now after 1AM and still was feeling human.

Well eventually everyone from our group had packed it in, leaving just myself and Sean to close things out.  Which we literally did, not leaving South Street until 2AM, a normal occurrence for Sean, a first for me.  Like I mentioned before, Sean has the gift of gab, something that helps him quite a bit when it comes to dealing with women.  My lack of this gift definitely is a negative in this regard, perhaps I hope that I can absorb some of Sean’s gift via osmosis.

We talked about various things to wind up the night.  I actually drank very little over that roughly 4 hour period.  I had one Miller Lite and half of someone else’s unwanted beer.  I dropped the top on the SSR and headed home with my Pandora Smashing Pumpkins channel playing loudly.

When I finally got home instead of going directly to bed I instead answered email, which made little to no sense.  Finally the 5 hour energy wore off and I drifted to sleep somewhere around 3AM.  Did you know they have Olympic coverage on NBC at 3AM? Neither did I.

I woke up Sunday morning in disbelief when I looked at my clock.  It was 10AM.  I don’t sleep till 10AM, ever.  On a typical summer Sunday by 10AM I will have biked, maybe run and be ready to hop in the pool to swim.  To just be cracking open my eyelids at that time  was bizarre and not exactly a welcome feeling.  I really don’t like starting my day late.

So I got up and looked at my perspective day.  I knew it was going to sort of suck.  My pressure washer merry go round episode the day before meant I had hours of wet work ahead, plus I hadn’t even touched the stuff inside the house that needed to get done.  If you know me at all you know that I HATE having my weekend back loaded with work.

So I drug the new pressure washer onto the pool deck, filled it with gas and crossed my fingers that what I experienced with the display model was an isolated incident.  Evidently it was, I spent 4 solid hours out there blasting away.  The new washer performed quite well. making the job slightly less annoying.  Unfortunately the washing process revealed a few screen trouble areas.  There are several sections that are torn along the spline, including one roof section, meaning I now have screen repair to do as well.

I have never tried to to replace/repair a section of screen on the top of the cage.  I am not sure if I want to try it or not.  I have these visions of me falling through the cage that aren’t very appealing.

So finally I finished up with the pressure washing.  My reward for completion was to head inside and knock out the indoor chores.  My mood was not light and fluffy.

One of the things that had to get done inside was my weekly bill paying session.  Part of this process once a month is pulling out the credit card receipts from a year ago (they are kept in a folder for each month) and shredding them.

Well last August was the epic Ireland trip so in my hands were all the credit card receipts from the adventure.  Instantly I was transported back there, each receipt had a back story to it.  It seems hard to believe that a year has passed already since the trip, the memories all felt so fresh.

Of course it is inevitable that reliving those memories delivered a sobering shot of pain.  The trip was filled with so many great experiences and fond memories, to contrast it with what is now our much different reality was just sort of sad. I allowed myself to dwell on it only briefly before I shredded the evidence.

It’s times like these that really make me feel like I need a total reboot of my situation.

 

 

So when I got home Friday I was worried that Nicki once again shit in the house.  However I didn’t want to create more stress for her.  So I let the dogs out front and then took them into the back yard so I could search the house without them watching me.

My hopes were high, I started at the front of the house and worked my way back, no piles to be seen anywhere.  Then I look in the final room, the master bathroom, bingo, a small pile stared back at me. Great.

So I go about cleaning up the mess before letting the dogs back in the house.  I made sure to not indicate anything negative to Nicki as she came back in.  I could tell she expected me to scold her for her dirty deed.  Instead I acted like everything was wonderful and Nicki seemed to respond positively.  She ate her supper Friday night right away which was cool.

However she again shit in the house Saturday night while I was out.  Again I cleaned it up out of her view.  Obviously this behavior has to be stress related but I don’t quite understand why it is so bad all of a sudden.  I have had the girls out at the house for extended periods of time several times since the split and it was totally fine.

I saw the Olympic opening ceremonies Friday night.  To be honest, I thought they were stupid, a feeling I saw echoed among a number of my friends. Specifically the Queen tie in with James Bond and the Mr Bean/Chariots of Fire thing were just horrible.  I didn’t think the ceremonies were anywhere close to as good as what we saw in Beijing four years ago.  I did see a few people that more than likely have more evolved taste than I do say they liked the show.

Saturday morning I headed into the office early to do a server migration.  I thought it would be fun to bring the dogs with, it was.  Both of them were very excited to explore the office.  I opened up areas I didn’t even need to get into just so they could explore.  They seemed to love it. At one point they even decided to wrestle while in my office, it was cute.

I had to run into the bathroom and take a leak.  While I did I left the dogs out in the main hallway.  When I cam back out I looked at the far end where the automatic double doors are.  I assumed the doors were locked off business hours.

Well I see Sadie standing outside on the other side of them.  Evidently she triggered the doors and she walked out.  I hurried down there and called her back in.  She came in with a big dog smile, almost proud of what she managed to accomplish.

There was another funny moment when I was in the server room.  The door for the room remains locked but there is a motion sensor inside that will unlock the door when you approach.  When the door unlocks it makes a noise.  Well Sadie would trip the sensor and then be amazed by the noise.  Time and again she would walk through the sensor field and then be surprised by the noise.  It was cute.

Eventually they settled down and just hung out while I worked.  I was in the office until close to lunch time before I finished up.  Before I left I let the girls do one more exploration run.  It was so funny to see how excited they were.

On the drive home both of the dogs seemed pretty pooped.  However before Sadie laid down she assumed a position she never has before.  Her body was wedged all the way under the bed with her head popped out.  The expression on her face made me laugh out loud.

Once I got home I busted my ass getting the grass handled, both via the tractor and weed whacker.  It was a sweat fest.  The reason I hurried was because I was going out to see Dark Knight. I was seeing the movie with someone else and had to pick her up beforehand.

I thought the movie was really good albeit a bit drawn out at parts. I really liked the way they tied things together and the ending was really well done.  I’d give it an A and you might be able to talk me into an A+.  I think I still enjoyed Avengers more though. I was surprised when I looked at my watch to see the movie was well over two and a half hours long.

Sunday morning I got up super early to go do training bricks with Tom, he has a tri coming up this weekend and wanted to do speed intervals.  The plan was to do a 20 minute ride at near race pace and then immediately do a roughly 10 minute run, again at near race pace.  That doesn’t sound too bad, right?  Well Tom wanted to do this 6 times.

I was already not well prepped for the effort.  I didn’t carb up like I should have the night before and I got very little sleep.  I figured I could still hang, which I did, for awhile.

Tom does a ton more biking than I do. He has been riding over 100 miles a week, I ride 12.  He also has a tri bike.  But he is also 62 years old so I figured that evened things out.  I kept up with him for the first 4 riding segments, although it was hard work, and the running part of the bricks was no problem for me.  However during the 5 th ride my legs simply died.  Both my hamstrings and calves felt like they were on the verge of cramping.  I told Tom to go ahead and I cut the loop short.

I had to get out of there anyway because I had another thing to do late morning.  I was totally gassed and extremely tired.

I decided this weekend that the online dating world is now offline for me for the foreseeable future.  It seems like until either more time passes or my marital status changes officially I am going to be running into unwanted problems.  If something comes to be in a “conventional” manner great, but I am not going to be placing my face on an online billboard, it just hasn’t been worth it.