For quite a few weeks I have been not getting great amounts of sleep. It seems like my bed time has been consistently slipping back to 11:30 or later. With a 6AM alarm during the week that seems to be adding up to a lot of drowsiness. I never have gotten a consistent 8 hours of sleep but I sure would like to shoot for it. As you reach your elderly years as I have, rest is important.
So Nick Foles is officially going to be a Jacksonville Jaguar which makes me sad. Of course I wish him the best of luck but I am curious how this will all pan out. Nick’s best time in the league has been with the Eagles by far. When he was traded years back he struggled mightily. I am curious if he will be able to have the same secret success sauce with the Jaguars. I already have read a couple stories mocking Jacksonville for paying big money for a QB that statistically was at best marginally better than Blake Bortles their current QB, who is due to be cut. Plus it seems like there weren’t any other teams that were in red hot pursuit of Nick, making Jackonsville’s big contract more questionable.
The other Eagles news was they have traded to bring Desean Jackson back to the team. I have mixed feelings about it. When he was released years ago I remember feeling relieved. I hated his cocky attitude, although his athletic ability was top notch. Ironically it seems Jackson’s best games since leaving the Birds were when he played against them. He has put up some big numbers against the Eagles but overall he has never reached the superstar status he thought he already had attained as a young player.
My hope is now at 31 years of age, Desean has matured at least a little bit and isn’t quite as much of an asshole as he was 10 years ago. By all accounts he still has great speed which is something the Eagles receiving group did not have a lot of last year. It will be cool to have a legitimate downfield threat to help keep defenses honest. Hopefully Carson can stay healthy enough next year to throw some balls to him.
Well when I posted this picture yesterday showing sweet little Stephie in the bottom right I had no inclination that I would be writing about the hen opposite her, Pumpkin the very next day. Yes we had another death in the flock yesterday, only two days after Stephie disappeared with no explanation on Saturday morning.
On that Saturday morning I had to pick up Pumpkin and carry her outside, she was on the floor of the coop just sitting there. She was one of the few chickens that didn’t pick on Stephie on a regular basis. At that time I wondered if she saw the attack, was scared and decided to stay in the coop.
Well over the weekend both Cindy and I noticed Pumpkin just wasn’t herself, acting very lethargic and out of it. We noticed she had some pasty butt action going on which can cause problems. We cleaned her and a couple other hens Sunday morning. I figured she would come around from there as she has had similar episodes in the past.
When Cindy cleaned the coop yesterday she noticed that Pumpkin was already under the platform, isolating herself, not a good sign. I got home late due to traffic. Cindy had gone out to put the chicks to bed and came back to tell me she didn’t see Pumpkin in the coop….
So by the time I changed and came out she said she found her, dead, under the coop. I could not believe that we just lost another hen. Based on the experience we had with Lucy where she was prematurely assumed to be dead I looked under the platform with faint hope Pumpkin wasn’t dead. However both feet straight up in the air with no motion dismissed that idea immediately. Now I had to get her out.
Her body was a good 8 feet under the platform. I grabbed a large plastic tray we keep out there for me to lay on when needed. I then got the long rake I normally use to comb the run. Getting her out was a delicate procedure that took time as I did not want to pull her out in a way that would mangle or harm her any further. After about 10 minutes of work I finally had her still body in hand. Of course I had tears in my eyes as I placed her in the wagon to take her out back to be buried.
As I was pulling the wagon out there I was getting absolutely mauled by mosquitoes as the sun had just set, the prime time for them. I swore out loud several times at the lunacy of living in a place that has active mosquitoes alive in December. They continued to attack me mercilessly as I dug Pumpkins grave, I gave up trying to swat them and just ignored the constant pin pricks. I tried to dig her grave deep, much deeper than the other birds as we have had issues with other animals digging up the remains. We both said our good byes as I laid her into her final resting spot, feeling guilty that somehow I should have been able to prevent this outcome.
Pumpkin was another sweet bird that like Stephie was pretty far down in the pecking order. In recent weeks I had been giving both her and Stephie treats away from the other birds so they wouldn’t get hassled. To lose both of them in the span of three days is surreal.
I actually feel a bit numb to what happened. All of a sudden our adult flock is down to six birds, of those six only two of them seem 100% ok. Kathy has chronic pasty butt, Kristen has been laying lash eggs which identify a possible internal infection, Katie has a bad leg which has had her limping for weeks, and Shadow is also low energy and has been dropping liquid egg looking stuff. Only the Jersey Giants, Cupcake and Cutie Pie seem 100% healthy at this point. Today Cindy is doing a full cleaning of the chickens feeders which we have been really bad at doing on a regular basis (at all). I need to make sure I add that to my mental check list of things that HAVE to be done.
I stayed up to watch the Eagles last night. During the first half it seemed like the Eagles were setting themselves up to fall flat on their face. Lucky for them they were playing the one team that has been more decimated by injuries than the Eagles have. That streak continued last night when the Redskins back up QB broke his leg, just like the starter did two weeks ago, an incredible string of bad luck.
The end result was Mark Suck Sanchez, who had a brief stint with the Eagles but hadn’t thrown a pass since 2016, was inserted into the game. After some early limited success, Sanchez returned to his old form throwing a bad interception and having an embarrassing butt fumble in the second half (that he recovered). It was a nice win for the Birds which allows them to still control their own destiny, setting up a monster rematch with the Cowboys next week for the division lead. If they manage to win that game the team may still have a pulse.
As I mentioned several times this past week, I have been in the midst of a shitty week at work. To compound matters, Cindy has been having her own stress from trying to do the majority of the double bathroom vanity project herself. It has just been a lot of shit going on. On Friday I left the office a little early so I could attend to some chores at home, since I had to work a good portion of the day Saturday. I also needed to bring home materials needed to do the last prep work before Ray came in to install the new vanity on Saturday morning.
Cindy had made a ton of progress during the day, redoing the drywall box behind the tub, so that it now can accommodate the full 60 inches required for the new vanity. She had been busting her ass all week since the vanity showed up. I felt badly she worked so much on the project with only minimal assistance from me but had my own battles at work I was dealing with at the same time.
So Saturday I was out the door around 8 and did not get home until close to 1:30. By the time I walked in the door Ray and Doug had just about finished up with the install. Taking a look at the plumbing work they had to do made me glad I did not elect to tackle this project myself. The vanity looked good in it’s new home and of course the bathroom felt entirely different.
So despite working at the office for half the day, I had to turn on the reserve gas tank to help Cindy get things back in order. As you can imagine a project like this requires a lot of tools and creates a lot of mess. Hell I spent 30 minutes just cutting up all of the cardboard from the work outside. We diligently worked our way through it and eventually got things mostly back in shape. There were two things that needed to get done, glue on the backsplash and hang the new frameless mirror. We got the back splash glued up Saturday night. The install could really use two side splashes as well but we haven’t really figured out how to make that work yet thanks to the horrible workmanship on the walls in that bathroom. Not only are the corners not square, the back wall has a nasty bow in it.
Saturday night we watched the last 50 Shades of Grey movie. It may have been one of the worst written movies I ever saw. Of course they tried to prop it up by inserting sex scenes every five or six minutes. The origin story for the villain in the movie is laughable. I’m glad the series is over. C+
So this morning we wanted to get the mirror on the wall. Like I said the bowed surface meant we already knew the mirror would only be glued in place on the high spots. We helped offset the poor adhesion surface by making sure the bottom edge of the mirror was on the backsplash, to help shed weight. I applied large amounts of adhesive to the wall and then Cindy and I pressed the five foot mirror into place. After holding it there for a little while Cindy applied some painter’s tape to keep it against the surface to cure. Later in the morning I miter cut a piece of floor molding to replace one that was removed during demo.
We are both happy with the end result. There may be a few minor tweaks remaining but it is 99% there. Despite dealing with a lot of hand pain from all of the gripping, Cindy plowed through the project and got it done. As always I am appreciative of having someone in the household that works as hard as I do.
We did get out for a brief ride in the morning to Max Hasse park. We never rode the area before. It was small but scenic. I had a good time rolling around on my One Wheel while Cindy was on her MiniPro.
The Eagles game was a throwback, a throwback to how the team has played more often than not the last 10 years. After amassing a 17 point lead going into the fourth quarter I thought the team would be able to close out the Panthers. That was a key difference with last year’s team, they knew how to close out games. That skill set seems to be missing from this year’s squad.
The defensive mindset is maddening where they rush four and drop seven in coverage. However most of these seven players are not in actual coverage, they are just standing around trying to read the play, which they seem to be pretty awful at doing. During the Panther’s three straight touchdown drives, time and again I saw guys standing there flat footed as receivers easily ran free around them. I think this scheme blows or it at least blows with the personnel the team is putting out there. The fourth quarter was basically prevent defense the entire time.
I just don’t get it. Last year the Eagles flipped the script in these situations and continued to be aggressive, even when carrying a lead. Why Pederson seems to be willing to abandon what got them to the pinnacle of the league last year is very confusing and annoying to me. The team desperately needs at least one quality cornerback out there and needs to realize this front four is not getting enough pressure by themselves to be relied on so heavily.
It takes a special kind of suck to blow a 17 point lead in 15 minutes. Grats to the Eagles for finding a way to do it.
The blog is hitting the streets tonight because I once again have a jam packed day ahead of me tomorrow. The good news is that if I get through the next 24 hours things should be more or less back to normal through Christmas.
Sure I would like to just skip to the most epic Super Bowl of my life but I feel I should give the rest of the weekend proper representation. Saturday morning I got up and drug myself out of bed to go run, despite a lower body that was STILL sore from squatting and deadlifting on Tuesday. I slogged through the run, never feeling comfortable.
When I got home I went right into a small chore list that I wanted to knock out. After doing so Cindy, Elsa and I headed out to grab some coffee and run some errands. We took the Tacoma so I could throw another 15 bags of top soil in the back to continue my winter long ground elevation project behind the chicken coop. My hope is I am able to at least give the birds a decent size island in the back that will escape the soggy effects of wet season.
Cindy had a ton to do for SuperBowl party prep and she was working on it in earnest, with both food and decoration prep. I kept busy doing my own things which included 3D printing, laser engraving, and a few more things. Late in the afternoon I took my wheels over to the school to futz around a bit. I shot some footage for my upcoming 1000th video on my YouTube channel. I’m hoping to make that one pretty cool.
On Saturday night we planned on watching Hell or High Water, our Netflix rental however there was some sort of problem with the disc and it wouldn’t read in my Blu-ray player. I told Cindy I would just get it on X1 par-per-view. Yea it sucks to pay for something I could get for free but it wasn’t a big deal. Well it turned out I didn’t have to pay anything since the movie was already on Showtime. I could watch it on demand for free, cool.
The movie has a strong cast and an interesting plot. It sort of had a Robin Hood good natured vibe to it until things got unexpectedly dark towards the end. It was a good B+ movie for sure but it sure did not end up as I expected.
Sunday was the day. We had a lot to do, well I had a lot, Cindy had an unbelievable amount of work that she did. She LOVES planning parties and doing everything connected to it. She was literally on the go almost the entire day.
Her work was nothing short of incredible. In addition to the conventional food prep Cindy made these amazing baked creations including the football field on the right and Eagles cookies made with a 3D cutter I printed. Katie came over in the afternoon and did the decorating for the cake pops on the left. She did an amazing job with them, putting her creativity on display.
I had the 3D printers working hard most of the day as well, creating an Eagles themed quarter tray and a toothpick holder, both of which I designed from scratch. I filled in the squares of the betting board, a tradition from the very first Super Bowl party that was ever hosted at the house. I tried to make more of the bets have less than a 50/50 chance so there was the possibility of some bigger winners. For example one of the bets was the distance of the first punt.
We flipped on the tv as early as 12:30 and they already had Super Bowl pre-game on, wow. I did mostly the grunt work part of the prep, moving and rearranging things, setting stuff up and filling in with whatever else Cindy needed. Like I said the amount of effort she put into this party was nothing short of amazing. About mid-afternoon there was a lull in prep, most things were done. I decided to knock out an oil change on Cindy’s car as it was one less thing off my mental to do list. It was uneventful and only took about a half hour, including clean up.
So the party was scheduled to start around 5:30. Our first guest arrived a few minutes after that. It was Megan, whose dog Wishbone has been walked by Cindy and I several times. I was surprised when Cindy told me that Wishbone was coming to the party. Of course my first thought always jumps to a dog marking his territory in the house. Luckily Wishbone had no incidents but instead circled the party more or less non-stop, looking for food. He literally did not sit/lay down once.
Other guests arrived steadily from there on. By 6’oclock almost the entire roster was there and the house was loud and full of energy. This was a very special party since MY team was in it. The crowd was mostly friends of ours from the running club and a few others. Ali and her boyfriend Shugs even came out, with Sadie of course which Elsa was thrilled about.
I sort of figured that Elsa would mostly hide during the party but surprisingly she was in the middle of the crowd, even snuggling up to Matt on the sofa for a period of time which surprised the hell out of me.
I did myself a favor and watched a lot of the commercials ahead of time since they were posted on YouTube. Doing so allowed me to actually hear and enjoy them, something that is very difficult to do with 15 people in a room. However I could watch the action on the field just fine.
The first half was pretty crazy with both teams moving the ball but the Eagles taking more advantage, scoring pretty easy and often. There were two defining moments of the first half for me. The first was when Patriots pulled a trick play that had Tom Brady downfield as a receiver, a wide open receiver. He proceeded to drop a pass that hit him right in the hands. However on a 4th and goal, the Eagles stole that page from the Patriots and actually executed the play to perfection with Nick Foles pulling in a pass from the tight end for a touchdown. It was an incredibly ballsy call but that was theme of this team all year, aggressive play calling.
The halftime show, which I didn’t entirely see, seemed not bad but not quite as iconic as I would have expected. Almost always there is some sort of unannounced collaboration that goes on. However Justin Timberlake performed with nobody else except towards the end where he sung some Purple Rain as an image of Prince was projected onto a big curtain. I saw some people say the show was great so maybe I just have bad taste.
The second half of the game was a sprint. All of a sudden the Eagles defense had no answers to stop the Patriots. Luckily the Eagles offense was still scoring but the Patriots were scoring faster and way too easily. In the fourth quarter the Patriots took their first lead of the game, by one point and I was worried that we were watching the start of another Eagles failure at the precipice of the ultimate victory.
By the time the fourth quarter started almost everybody had left, it was only Cindy, myself, Ali, and Shuggs. Outside of Shuggs we were the only real Eagles fans there although pretty much everyone at the party wanted to see the Patriots lose. It somehow seemed fitting that as the game came down to it’s teeth gritting, heart stopping conclusion, we were the only ones left.
So when Zac Ertz scored the go ahead touchdown which Chris Collinsworth, who has always been an asshole when it comes to the Eagles, was trying to convince the world was going to be overturned, we went nuts. But because of an early missed extra point and two failed 2 point conversions, the Eagles were only up by 5 points with two and a half minutes to go. With Tom Brady’s track record and the way he had been torching the Eagles at will the entire second half I was, concerned.
We all yelled at the tv at the Eagles defense that SOMEBODY had to make a play. They had not even sacked Brady the entire game. On the very next play, it happened, Brady was hit and fumbled the ball, recovered by the Eagles. We went ape shit, literally ape shit. Instead of folding up their tent, the Eagles actually came up when it mattered the most and smacked the Patriots in the mouth.
Unfortunately the Eagles couldn’t run the clock out and had to settle for a field goal which gave them an 8 point lead, meaning the Patriots could possibly score and make a two point conversion to tie it. The good news was the Patriots only had 30 seconds to drive the length of the field and no time outs. Brady made a valiant effort and actually got close enough to throw a ball into the endzone for a hail mary as time expired that thankfully fell to the ground after coming dangerously close to being caught on a rebound. It was over. The Eagles actually won the Super Bowl…..
Even though there were only four of us, we made enough noise for 40. Ali had tears in her eyes of joy, Cindy was smiling ear to ear and I was just screaming. My entire life I pulled for the Birds to win it all. After five decades of near misses it seemed surreal that we were the last team standing, finally.
In the past the Eagles were good enough that they were expected to win. This team that fought through some severe injury losses, including their starting QB, to get all the way to the end, being the underdog in each and every playoff game they played. I don’t think I could have written a better script. Nick Foles, who I always liked when he was with the team the first time around, was simply amazing. He played smart and clean, if he felt nervous he did not show it, instead making throw after throw with his TD reception going down as one of the more memorable in SB history.
The game smashed records, not only for a Super Bowl but for any NFL game, ever. Never have two teams put up as many yards as the Patriots and Eagles did. The final score was the most points in SB history and even taking my Eagles partisanship out of the picture, I think it will go down as one of the best Super Bowl games ever. To have my team be part of that equation and the winning side of it on top, is something I will cherish till things fade to dark.
Before the game I posted on Facebook that if the Eagles win I would jump in the pool. I’m not the type to not follow through on such a promise so after ripping off my shirt and socks I jumped into the 60 something degree pool water after letting out the most enthusiastic E A G L E S cheer of my lifetime. Sure the water felt cold but my inner warmth from the glow of Super Bowl victory helped insulate me.
I’m glad I took today off from work to recover, relax and bask in the glow of a new reality where the Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl Champions!
So one of the many unfun things about turning 50 is the requirement for our county health insurance plan that I undergo a colonoscopy, a procedure I never had. I understand the reasoning behind it, it’s a good preventative measure to catch any potential issues early. It certainly doesn’t mean I want to have it done.
I have been putting it off for a couple months but finally decided to schedule the colonoscopy yesterday which should take place at the beginning of March. Everyone says the procedure itself is no big deal, it’s the prep ahead of time that sucks where they give you a drink that flushes out your intestines, forcefully. I’m sure that like most things, once it’s over with I will think it was less of a big deal than it currently appears. Still, if I wasn’t forced to do it for insurance reasons, I’d probably put it off for a few more years.
While I was in the wellness mindset I also mentally committed to go get an eye exam on Monday. My distance vision has been deteriorating for the last six or seven years. For about the last five years one of my New Year’s resolutions has been to get my eyes checked and I have continued to push it off. Since my eyes still work for looking at a computer screen all day I have just rolled with it.
My problem is exactly the thing that lasik does best at addressing but there is no way I would want to spend that kind of money. Getting contacts is also out of the picture as I have a HORRIBLE time doing anything eye related. I can’t even keep them open to put in eye drops. Part of the reason I have not gotten my eyes checked is fear of the eye exam itself. I am hoping the end result of all of this is I get a prescription for glasses that will allow me to comfortably see distance when necessary. I can’t imagine a scenario where I would want to or need to wear glasses full time.
This weekend will have an extra level of activity with the Super Bowl Party we are hosting at the house. Of course this year is taking on additional significance since the Eagles are participants, trying to do what up this point in my life has been impossible, win it all. Cindy is in full party planning mode, something she really enjoys. I’m very glad she likes doing it so much because I certainly don’t.
We will be making various tweaks to the house to accommodate the guests which could number 15 or more. This year we also have the option of splitting the party between the house and Cindy’s RV which can comfortably hold another half dozen people and gets clear reception of NBC on it’s antennae. I’m sure it will be a fun time for sure. The only downside is when you are the host of a party it is sometimes difficult to focus on the game itself. If there was ever a game I wanted to focus on, it’s this one.
Win or lose I am glad I took Monday off to recover. I will be other too depressed or too elated to be bothered with something like a job for 24 hours.
I picked up Sadie on my way home from work on Friday. When we got home Elsa went absolutely bat shit crazy to see Sadie emerge from the Prius. She loves having Sadie around.
On Saturday morning I started out once again with my 13 lap run around the track. During the last half of the run some kids were getting dropped off presumably for some athletic event. About a dozen of them joined me on the track, doing one high speed lap, easily blowing past me. Some of the kids were wearing flip flops and still left me eating their dust.
My chore load for Saturday was pretty light with weeding being the primary must do. We headed out to Rural King and Home Depot with the dogs mid-morning. I grabbed 15 more bags of top soil to continue my primitive ground level elevation project behind the coop.
My 3D printers were working hard on Saturday finishing up another colorful EUC stand. I also printed a blue version of my knife model to use at work. On Sunday I put my rudimentary Fusion 360 skills to work to design a little clip I could put on my pool vacuum hoses to keep them from falling off the holder I have on the wall.
Late last week I passed another milestone on my main YouTube channel, crossing the 3000 subscriber mark. I thought I would celebrate the occasion by making a short montage video that touched on the core subject matter my channel is about.
Saturday night Cindy and I headed out to see 12 Strong, once again opting for the VIP theater experience at The Prado. We decided to eat dinner there as well since we had a good experience eating there with Randall a few weeks ago. Cindy and I ordered the exact same items off the menu and had the same praise for the end result. The only negative was the super slow service at the bar where they had one woman back there that didn’t seem to know what she was doing. Eventually we just bailed on the idea of getting a beer after waiting for more than 5 minutes with no movement in the line.
The movie was about a seemingly crazy true story at the beginning of the Afghanistan conflict. A small US team was sent in to work with a local Afghan faction to overtake a Taliban controlled area. The soldiers literally at some points were fighting Taliban in tanks and truck mounted rocket launchers on horseback. Yes it seemed sort of insane. Their original intent was to serve as a cross hairs for US targeted airstrikes but it morphed into horses versus tanks in the end. I am not sure how much of the scenario was exaggerated for the movie, but if it went down pretty much as depicted, it’s an amazing example of heroism and bravery. It’s a solid A flick.
After the movie we stopped at the cute little ice cream shoppe next door and enjoyed small cups of ice cream as we sat by the cool fire/water feature. We both really enjoy watching movies at Prado.
On Sunday morning Cindy and I went out for an EUC ride, parking in the Super Target lot since Cindy had a few things she wanted to pick up there. We brought the Msuper and Mten3 for the ride. It was a fun ride and the longest distance I have taken the Mten3 as we looped all the way to North Collier Park and back.
So on the way back we came in behind Target like we did on the way out, to avoid the busy parking lot traffic. As we were wheeling along a white SUV was approaching us from the other direction. As it got closer instead of following the curve in the road it kept going straight in our general direction. The driver of the vehicle had his face in his phone, of course, and was not paying attention.
Cindy yelled out and gestured at the guy who then immediately jerked the wheel to change direction. We had plenty of room to avoid an impact but the guy was clearly not paying attention. Well after we passed I saw the reverse lights on the SUV light up in my rear view mirror. Cindy looked back and saw it as well and was worried he was going to try to hit us which I assured her he would not do. Instead he sped past us in an adjacent lane and then gave us the finger as he drove by, what an idiot.
It would have been interesting if he would have stopped and gotten out of the vehicle. I am normally not the type of person to overreact to a situation or go looking for conflict. However if someone brings it to my doorstep then things can get a little scary. So anyway, the dumb ass drove away and we had a funny ending to the ride video as I had the camera rolling, just in case.
Sunday afternoon we did our own thing. Cindy did a lot of crafting over the weekend. She is getting really good with her Cameo and made a very pro looking t-shirt decal that she applied with her new heat press machine. I edited the ride video and then watched a good portion of the Patriots/Jaguar game.
Man although I have no love for the Patriots it is impossible to not respect how much they have accomplished. Once again they came back from a double digit deficit to beat the Jaguars. The fact that Tom Brady accomplished this without Gronkowski, who was knocked out with a head injury late in the first half, made it even more impressive. Brady’s list of accomplishments are simply staggering. To me, there is not a doubt that he is the best QB of my lifetime.
I of course was more interested in the next game. Once again, despite having the best record in the league, for the second time in as many weeks the Eagles were an underdog, at home, which is almost unheard of. Most people, myself included thought that once Carson Wentz got hurt the Eagles chances of success dropped way down. However the team has managed to use that as a rallying cry, using the underdog role to fuel their efforts.
The way the game started did not give me a warm and fuzzy feeling. The Vikings marched straight down the field and scored a TD with little resistance. The sick feeling in my stomach was amplified by the stat that they flashed on the screen stating that no team with an indoor stadium has ever played an outdoor game in the championship game and won, their record is 0-12. In the past the Eagles have had a bad habit of bucking these trends so I was worried that we were again headed in that direction.
If you would have told me that the Birds would turn things around to score 38 unanswered points at that time I would have called you crazy however that is what happened. I was so used to Eagle teams in the past collapsing with big leads that I was still not confident when the score was 31-7. Only once they got the final touchdown did I know for sure they were going to the Superbowl. What an amazing game.
I was so happy for Nick Foles, he had a superb game. I always liked the guy when he was with the Eagles. From the start he struck me as a quality human being and for him to succeed at this level after struggling when he was traded was heart warming. He played like his amazing year under Chip Kelly when he threw 27 TDs with only two interceptions. He was calm and in control.
The Eagles defense came up big after looking like a doormat on the first drive. The Vikings did move the ball somewhat but some big takeaways kept them from scoring again which was huge. This game will go down as one of the all timers in my book as far as satisfaction and level of play goes.
The Super Bowl party we are hosting once again after a one year hiatus suddenly has taken on a whole new level of excitement. To have the team I have lived and died with my entire life in the big game will be special indeed. I can only hope somehow they are able to keep the magic going just one more time…
Saturday morning I got up before my 5:45 alarm to get out and get my run in. The air again was pleasantly cool which made for a more tolerable running experience. The 13 laps went by fine and as has been the case for the last few months it was just me and the crickets out there on the track.
Cindy was teaching classes Saturday morning which meant I was left to my own taskmaster vices. I buzzed around the house, inside and out tending to various things on my mental to do list. When Cindy got home we piled into the Tacoma with Sadie and Elsa to head to Home Depot. One of the things I wanted to look at there was screen doors, the type used on our pool cage. I was unsure if Home Depot would carry them or not.
Well I may have mentioned, the screen contractor that I terminated my relationship with quoted a price of $500 to replace the door on the east side of the cage that was bent and twisted from Irma. Of course I thought this was high but I did not get a true appreciation for just how outrageous it was until Saturday. A brand new door was less than $80. I knew I didn’t have the time to install the door this past weekend so I didn’t grab it right away but you can be assured I will be doing so shortly. I likely may replace the other door as well so I have a new matching set. Even with replacing two I’ll still be miles ahead of the quote for a single door replacement. I feel badly for people that don’t do any legwork to confirm if a contractor is being straight up with you or just feeding you a mountain of bullshit to justify overpriced goods and services.
Late Saturday afternoon I decided to take my Mten over to the school, the perfect place to practice and experiment with the little, yet powerful wheel. I had a lot of fun attempting and being successful with tricks/moves that I wouldn’t even dare to try with my larger conventional EUC’s. I was glad I got to ride Saturday because we didn’t have time on Sunday to get out.
During the day I had the 3D printers working hard. I printed another geometric Xmas tree, in a more festive green. I also printed a bunch of gifts for Cindy’s nephew Owen including Harry Potter glasses, a wand, Minecraft keychains, and a cool target for Nerf guns.
Saturday night Cindy and I watched King Arthur, our latest Netflix rental. The movie put a hip, modern spin on a very old story. I found it entertaining but not mind blowing. It was a solid B rental for me.
So Sunday was going to be a very busy day. We were going to the Miami area to attend Owen’s birthday party. Cindy had a mini-emergency when her Iphone 6 appeared to go DOA, only showing the red battery indicator and little else, despite being on the charger all night. We tried a number of tricks found on the internet to revive it, including heating the back of the phone with a hair dryer, which worked briefly. However we were unsuccessful. Oddly when we returned from the east coast the phone magically started working again but it clearly has some sort of battery related issue.
I did my weekly bill paying session and then we quickly ran to the pool store and Dunkin Donuts before we had to get ready to leave. We picked up Cindy’s niece Taylor on the way whom we don’t get to see that much of. It was nice to have her along to keep us company. Taylor is extremely intelligent and should have a very bright future in front of her.
The drive across state took a little less than two hours and was uneventful. The most challenging part of it was staying awake as I had a very poor night of sleep on Saturday. When we approached Cindy’s sister-in-law and brother’s place we were astonished that the street in front of their house was barricaded off because a HUGE inflatable obstacle course that was in middle of the road. Both Cindy and I wondered if they had to get a permit for that or if the rental company just does it first and begs for forgiveness later.
I really had no idea of what to expect of the party. It turned out to be quite large with a couple dozen kids running around like crazy. The obstacle course got used heavily. I hadn’t eaten lunch so I quickly started chowing down on chips and caramel corn, not my normal diet. I soon felt gross for consuming so much fat, salt, and sugar in a short period of time.
I didn’t know 90% of the people there but I still did an ok job being somewhat social. I was talking to one guy who seemed very nice but I had to do my best to conceal my inner cringe and disapproval of how much he loved duck and quail hunting. He said his son loves it too.
I understand that people are a product of their environment. If you were brought up in a family where hunting is just another activity I understand why the act of killing an animal may seem insignificant to you. However the same applies to someone like me who never hunted, and never even fired a real gun. To me, the act of willingly ending the life of an animal in a first person manner is pretty horrible. However, the reasonable adult in me realizes that the right/wrong gauge for everyone is personalized and I do my best to let “to each its own” be the motto I generally try to live by.
I had a good time at the party watching all the young energy running rampant among us. Owen seemed to really like the 3D stuff we made for him as he is currently a huge Harry Potter fan. We left shortly after the pinata smashing festivities concluded with Owen’s half brother Ryan exploding the pinata with one hard swing.
On the ride back to the west coast we picked up another passenger, Cindy’s other niece Stephanie. The girls kept the roughly 100 mile ride home entertaining. We rolled back into the driveway about 6:30 or so.
My poor night of sleep combined with going to one side of the state to the other and back again in a little more than six hours was going to make watching the Eagles game challenging. I actually fell asleep on the couch from early in the second quarter until about 11 minutes left in the third quarter.
If you read the scores today you see the 24-10 loss posted by the Birds. It was a disappointing effort for sure but really from what I saw, there were a few key things that could have easily changed that outcome. The Eagles were called on a TON of penalties, many of which came at the worst time, allowing the Seahawks to extend drives, drives that eventually lead to scores, instead of punting the ball away. Carson made some great plays but also some bad ones. He continued his rather worrisome trait of randomly overthrowing wide open receivers and committed a soul crushing fumble at the 10 inch line, robbing the Eagles of another scoring opportunity. The coaching staff seemed asleep at the wheel as well at times, failing to throw a red flag on an attempted lateral that clearly was a forward pass, once again allowing the Seahawks to drive down the field and score. It seemed to be an equal opportunity case of sloppiness.
To the Seahawks credit, Russell Wilson had an outstanding game. The Eagles got pressure on the pocket consistently most of the night but his elusiveness made it very difficult to pin him down. Seattle also seemed very adept at running pick plays that had the Eagles d-backs running into each other all night long. In the big picture it might be a good thing for the Birds to have an ugly game at this point in the season. The hope is it will wake them up a bit and bring the type of focus that is needed to really do something big this year.
So now after having Elsa in the house for around two weeks we have both been getting more used to each other. She is just extremely cute and seems very happy in her new home. However neither Cindy or I have been able to figure out why she is so skittish in some situations. We wonder if there was something about her old living situation that created this fear or if it’s just the way she is. Anyway, we will keep just smothering her with love and hope it eases whatever worries she has.
So I stayed up to watch the Eagles game although I flipped it off with about six minutes left, knowing the team was going nowhere. It was a very frustrating game to watch. The defense appeared to have no answers for Aaron Rodgers, he picked them apart masterfully. The Packers converted something ridiculous like 10 of 12 third down conversions. The few times the Eagles did actually stop them they committed stupid penalties to let the Packers move the chains anyway.
The front four of the Eagles just did not get the job done. Fletcher Cox who for some reason was deemed worthy of being awarded the highest non-QB contract in the off season has been the biggest disappointment of all. He has 4 sacks this season, the last one coming during the loss at Detroit. Yes, that was SEVEN games ago. You never hear his name called for making a play. The only time I heard his name last night was when he allowed the Packers to extend another drive with a 3rd down roughing the passer call. He is a rancid, stinking example of a player getting the big money and then laying an egg. His play has been very disappointing.
Carson Wentz had another sub-par game. Of course it is not entirely his fault. The Eagles wide receiving crew, which was already poor was short handed because Agoholor (another huge bust), didn’t dress because he has hurt feelioma or something along those lines. They could cut every WR on this team and replace them with waiver pick ups and not lose a step. The interception Wentz threw was a bad one. He has repeatedly exhibited a tendency to have balls “sail” on him during his rookie year. Last night’s example landed square in the chest of a Packer defensive back. I just don’t get how a team that looked so balanced and disciplined for the first three games of the season has unraveled to what we have seen the last couple months. At least the 2-6 record after the 3-0 start has put in focus what areas of the team are just not good enough.
During the game they flashed a stat that surprised me. The last 17 times the Eagles have been behind entering the 4th quarter behind on the scoreboard, they have lost. Wow talk about a lack of resiliency.
The weather this weekend was great with cool, crisp air most of the time. It was good weather for dogs to play. On Friday Sadie, Elsa, and the neighbor’s puppy Shadow had a rigorous play session. The end result of it was Sadie walking around with a severe limp Friday night. She gets excited and tries to run around like she weighs 20 pounds less than she does, which usually results in her hurting herself. Luckily Saturday morning the limp was less severe but we tried to limit her running the rest of the weekend with some limited success.
It felt weird that as I was completing chores outside Saturday morning that the final race I was contracted to time was going on. My timer buddy John had offered to time the race for me in a barter arrangement which was fine with me. With the completion of the event my plate is officially cleared of Green Machine Timing business. I have sold almost all of the equipment already and feel no regret in doing so. The motivation I had for starting GMT was fueled by a lot of “f u” energy that has faded over time. With that change along with the lack of financial pressure to supplement my income, it just feels good to let it all go.
Saturday afternoon we took the dogs on their first tandem road trip, hitting up Rural King and Home Depot. It was weird that we just randomly met Elsa unexpectedly a week prior at Rural King and a week later she was living in our home. Both dogs behaved well as we walked around the stores.
I was hoping to get out on my electric unicycle early in the afternoon since I hardly had any ride time during the week due to lack of daylight and other time commitments. However I wound up getting sidetracked for over two hours working on a computer problem. For some reason Windows file explorer kept crashing whenever I did anything that required browsing the file system. There had been no major changes recently so I had no idea why the behavior would start all of a sudden. I looked the problem up online and saw three possible remedies, I tried them all and none of them worked. I even went so far as to do a system restore from Wednesday, still no dice.
I then logged on as a different user and saw explorer was working just fine so at least it meant my problem was profile specific and not system wide. I decided to back up my documents and data and blow away my profile to start a new one. Doing so fixed my problem but then required me to do a lot of tweaking to get things in the new profile working correctly. I was quite frustrated by the entire process.
I finally got out on my wheel around 4PM. I drove to the Target shopping center and parked there. I then rode the 10K big loop that surrounds the North Collier Regional Park. I entered the park as part of the ride and tooled around for awhile. During the ride I rambled on about a bunch of various topics you may or may not find interesting.
On Saturday night we stayed in and watched Concussion, the movie Will Smith felt he deserved an Oscar nomination for. It was an interesting movie that dealt with just how horrible the side effects of repetitive head trauma can be. There were a number of players named in the film that died/killed themselves as a result. The only two I was aware of before the movie were Mike Webster and Junior Seau. I was shocked and amazed that I didn’t know the infamous Eagles safety from the Buddy Ryan years, Andre Waters, was another player that took his own life after battles with mental illness. The film, although slow at times, does make me look at the only professional sport that I actively root for differently. B+
So overall, Elsa has been pretty easy to merge into our daily routine except for one thing, house breaking. A handful of times she has done number one and two in the house which I guess is expected, however the way it has been happening is a bit maddening. Twice she has taken a dump in the dining room literally minutes after we just had her outside to go to the bathroom. Last night Cindy was walking her around out front for a good 10 minutes to avoid this exact scenario. She did nothing outdoors and promptly shit in the exact same spot in the dining room a few minutes after coming back inside. Obviously this behavior needs to be corrected but other than that, she has been an ideal addition.
Sunday morning I got out for another 4+ mile run. The temperature actually dropped 5 degrees between me arriving at the track and leaving. Some cool air was blowing into town. The run was challenging as the incoming cool air meant that half of every lap I was running into a pretty stiff headwind.
Katie and her boyfriend were unable to join is for our Sunday morning PTV ride because they had to run their dog to the vet. Cindy and I wound up riding around the Barron Collier high school area for maybe 5 miles or so. Riding in the cool air required a sweatshirt but it still felt great.
After the ride we stopped at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Their ad had a cool Christmas LED projector that I wanted to enhance our 2016 X-mas display. The projector literally blankets the front of your house with clear laser red and green images that cycle and move. We tried it out last night, it is coooool.
Katie and Daniel must really enjoy our Sunday rides, they asked if we could still go out Sunday afternoon, after they got back from the vet. The Eagles didn’t play until 4:30 so I was fine with it. We went back to the middle school I run at since they had closed in basketball courts that would be good for unicycle training. At this point Daniel had the basics mastered, Katie was now the one trying to get up and rolling on one wheel.
She had very early success, being able to ride from one side of the basketball court to the other. Within 15 minutes of that it had “clicked” for her. She was rolling along impressively, turning, starting, and stopping at a level that took me several weeks to achieve. It was another testament to the power of youth. She quickly got to the point where she was maxxing out the speed of the training wheel which was tilting her back hard. We had her get on the Ninebot One which she again quickly adapted to. It was amazing. She did have a wipe out that ended her riding session. I didn’t see the whole fall but I think she ran off the edge of the asphalt momentarily. Luckily she was wearing the new safety equipment we had bought for her so she escaped without any serious injuries. I was very impressed with her progress. Both her and Daniel picked up the skill much faster than I ever would have expected.
So that Eagles game was pretty brutal to watch, the Seahawks really did a good job of putting a spotlight on the Eagles weaknesses like their corner backs and wide receivers whom are both below average, at best. Carson Wentz had his worst game of the season. His numbers look better than they really were from junk yards at the end once the Seahawks went into prevent. To add injury to insult, the top two Eagles running backs, Ryan Matthew and Darren Sproles left the game with injuries. It was just a depressing game to watch and was a reality check for the team. Although the Eagles are better than expected this year, they have several key problems that will prevent them from becoming a contender.
The weather for most of this weekend was odd for Florida with mostly overcast skies that looked like rain yet yielded little more than a few sprinkles. At least the cloud cover kept the temperatures down although the humidity level was not nearly as pleasant as last week. I did some normal yard work in the morning before Cindy and I took Sadie for a ride to one of her favorite places, Rural King.
Later in the afternoon Cindy and I went out for a ride on our wheels in Valencia Lakes, a nearby development. While we were in there we tracked down the house of our friend Kerri who we know from the running club. Her and her son watched our chickens for us during our road trip last year. We hadn’t see her in quite awhile so it was nice to catch up.
Saturday night we headed to the movies for the first time in a few weeks to see Inferno, the third movie based on a Dan Brown book. I have read all of his books, including Inferno a year or two ago. I enjoy his writing style as well the subject matter that walks on the edge of controversial subjects like the hypocrisy of religion. Inferno, is based on another controversial subject, explosive human population growth and the brick wall it is hurdling us towards at a rapid pace.
The first two thirds of the movie seemed to follow what I remembered from the book pretty faithfully however the last third felt foreign with a number of things that I did not remember happening. I was not sure if I was just suffering from poor recollection of the book details or if they did make some wholesale changes. Well the answer is somewhere in the middle. After the movie Cindy looked it up and there were a number of deviations from the book including a very major one. I almost felt like I needed to go back and reread the last 50 pages of the book to see just how poor my recollection was. Anyway, my spending the last third of the movie reconciling between the book and film may have affected my overall enjoyment of the movie. I’ll give it a B+ although in reality I am feeling more B’ish about the whole thing.
Despite getting home late from the movie I woke up before the 6AM alarm to get up and run. I felt exhausted but compelled to keep up with the minimal once a week running program. I got out on the track about 15 minutes earlier than normal meaning it was literally pitch black when I started. I like that by the time other people start showing up I am nearly finished. Despite nearly 20 degree warmer temperatures and higher humidity than last week I turned in what I think was my fastest run of 2016.
Katie came over mid-morning to join us on what is becoming our traditional Sunday morning family ride on the Segways. We decided to take her to North Collier Regional Park, a spot Cindy and I have rode before. Not only is it a great spot to ride but they also had early voting available so Cindy and Katie could take advantage of it since neither had voted yet. This was actually the first time Katie had ever voted so it was cool to be there for her first time. With as long as the ballot is, I can only imagine how long the lines will be on election day. If you live in Florida and don’t take advantage of early voting you are crazy.
We had a fun ride after that although Katie had a few near falls. The Segway Minipros are very stable normally but they do have the same tilt back mechanism that my EUC does in order to limit rider speed. Basically when you cross 11mph the unit will start tilting you back, slowly at first and then more if the speed is still too high after a couple seconds. Twice Katie got hammered with severe tilt back that took her off the path although she didn’t fall off.
The tilt back safety feature is really a catch 22. Once the rear tilt reaches a certain angle your natural reaction is to lean forward to keep on top of the bot. The forward lean is interpreted by the wheel as you wanting to go even faster so it tilts you back even harder. The best way to deal with it is to just not go into tilt back speed area. Katie had one more near crash incident when she squeezed between a parking stop and curb and got one wheel up on the curb in the process. I’m not sure how she avoided falling that time but it made me think a helmet and wrist guards would be a good addition to both of the girls riding attire.
One of the things I like about the new wheel I am getting (arrives today) is the tilt back behavior can be customized. The higher speed capability of the wheel should make tilt back a thing of the past as I don’t intend to run it out to it’s top end speed. 25+ mph on a unicycle is a bit crazy.
Sunday afternoon Cindy and I took Sadie along to Home Depot to get a couple things including a nice yard wagon that will make transporting things to the back yard not necessarily require a trip through the gate with the Tacoma. We also bought an inexpensive Thanksgiving themed inflatable for the front yard, hoping to build off the popularity of our big red spider.
I got to play a lot of WoW Sunday afternoon which I enjoyed. I literally have a mountain of virtual things to do in game if I chose to do so. So far I have been echoing the feelings of other players regarding the new expansion that launched a month or so ago, it’s really good. So far I have only touched two of my eleven characters. There is just so much to see and do.
So of course I tuned in for the Eagles/Cowboys game. I am not sure why I am feeling so negative about the loss today as going in I thought the Birds didn’t have a great shot to win. I guess it’s because the Eagles played well enough to win and had a 10 point lead early in the fourth quarter that they gave away. I was not very happy pushing my waking hours to midnight (considering I got up before 6) just to see the defense collapse, allowing the Cowboys to score a TD on their first possession, easily. So before I start naming names and pointing fingers, let me once again say that I did not expect the Eagles to be good this year, so the fact that they have been doing better than expected is not lost on me.
Ok, Carson Wentz completed something like 32 passes but only threw for a little over 200 yards? When has that ever happened? The dink and dunk passing attack was a bit maddening and a testament to just how mediocre the Eagles wide receivers are. They scare no one. There is no deep threat on the team. You would think normally that a lack of speed would at least be countered by sure handedness? F no, these guys routinely drop easily catchable balls. Last night another four or five balls hit receivers in their hands and wound up on the ground. If the team had a true number one caliber wide receiver I think it would make a huge difference.
The Eagles cornerbacks blow, especially Mills. I am so sick of watching him get burned or penalized repeatedly and then wagging his finger when someone assigned to him doesn’t catch a ball, through nothing he did well. I mean he wags his finger if the ball is uncatchable, like he did something significant. Stop with all the gesturing and just play better. I still don’t understand how a 7th round rookie draft pick is a starting corner for the team but oh well. He also fell asleep at the wheel on special teams, allowing the Cowboy punter to run for a soul crushing 30 yard scamper. You suck buddy, leave the taunting and gesturing to the guys that actually make plays.
Fletcher Cox, what the hell dude? I recall during the tumultuous Eagles off season that I asked why in the world the team thought Fletcher Cox deserved to be the highest paid non-QB player in the NFL? His stats were good, not great, and certainly not deserving of such ridiculous wads of cash in my opinion. Well he has basically been a ghost this season doing nothing well unless you count getting blocked or falling down as positives. I focused on him during several series and he really looked like he was going through the motions with no motor at all. He was an absolute non-factor once again last night. That was definitely money ill spent.
Doug Pederson, the kicker made a 55 yard field goal not once, but twice at the end of the first half after the Cowboys called a time out to ice him. When you have a slightly shorter FG opportunity late in the game to make it a two score game you instead punt it away which resulted in the Cowboys immediately marching down the field and scoring? That was my first coaching wtf I had so far with Pederson this year, hopefully there aren’t a lot more of them. So ok, rant over, it felt good to get it out my system.
Tonight for Halloween I totally expect to get zero trick or treaters, just like every year for more than decade. Just in case we have a small bag of candy ready to go although I am sure Cindy and I will be the ultimate consumers of it.
Like I mentioned above my new MSuper electric unicycle is arriving a day or two earlier than I expected which is an awesome surprise. I can hardly wait to give it a go.
