Not the relaxing Saturday I was hoping for and kind of need. I started with a dawn run. And then some server config. And then some enhancements for ClusterF. And then some plumbing. By 11am I was on a roll and was just about to kick back and relax for the day.
Then it all unraveled. The ClusterF changes seem to take down the production network. The pipes started to leak. And three or four other things went wrong. A disk went bad on my home fileserver.
Stress level went up. But in the early afternoon we had fun with the kids... their first time swimming in the pool. It's still murky but they don't care.
Then I was back at fixing stuff. Trip to Home Depot. I found this cool mantle-like thing... normally $569 marked down to $59. I have no idea what I'll do with it but it's big and it was cheap. Probably a shelf in the basement to put knick knacks on.
Got the garage door opener working. Minivan now parked in the third port... junk filling up the first two.
Just as I was starting to settle down for the day Heather informed me that I had to get the invisible dog fence working. Great fun tromping through the underbrush running wires and cursing.
Now, at 10:43pm I'm sitting down with a laptop to watch some tv. Long day. Going running early again tomorrow.
I woke up at 6am and started to work. That didn't feel right so I looked outside and decided to go for a run. I haven't been running much lately and in fact this is my first run in the new neighborhood. Lots of hills. I took it easy and ran for about a half an hour. Nice to get out. I've missed running.
Look, I'm a weed eating machine. If it's green, I'll kill it. We have a wooded lot. Which sat vacant for a couple years before we moved in. And it's overgrown. We have ivy all over the place... and a ton of it is of the poison ivy variety. I hate poison ivy as much as I hate everything in the 10 Most Hated Things to Hate list. And I hate underbrush that gives snakes a place to hide.
Round Up is a chemical. I hate chemicals. But we had a work crew out for a day and they only cleared a small portion of the yard. I hate spending money. It just turns out that the chemicals, no matter how distasteful, are the most efficient option right now. I've sprayed a 20 or 30 foot swath all the way around the house and pool. Which wasn't easy. Poison ivy, spiders, mosquitoes and raw heat were on the offensive. Ivy covers 100% of the ground area 8" deep in foliage.
Now I wait a week to see what dies and what lives. At $25 per bottle for the stronger concentrated anti-poison ivy Round Up it's not cheap... but it's cheaper than the alternatives. I figure a once-a-week spraying for four or five weeks should do some damage.
The dogs are coming to the new place soon. They will be absolutely toxic within ten minutes of their arrival. Covered in poison ivy they'll be. Heather already has some on her forehead.
Progress on the house is slow. RJ is back working on deck safety. We finally have pickets close enough together that kids can't, you know, slip through them. Big plus. Heather's setting up the doggy room before she sets up the den. Which is to say that everything above my man cave is still in a state of disrepair.
Dryer flaked after the move. RJ's putting in a new heating element. Robin and Heather have hung drying lines inside, outside, under and over the house. They call it "going green."
My father and I replaced the heating element on the grill yesterday. Nice to be able to cook on more than 3 square inches again. $30 for the part vs. $95 for a new grill.
Pool guy has been elusive but it's summer and he's busy. We need to get the filter cleaned and I have no idea how to do that. Pool's still a milky blue.
My plumbing issue persists. I fixed the leak and can take showers. But in the process I somehow cut flow down dramatically... I think I put too many junctions and joints in there. Or some glue formed a blockage. I'll have to cut the entire section out again and start over. And then I have to drywall a section as tall as a grown man (me, actually.)
There's progress but we're getting weary. Would like to just magically have things together. I suppose that's what money is for but we can't spare enough to push that magic button.
1 month 14 days ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts
Marc invited me out. I've been missing riding but haven't found any motivation to get back out there. Le Tour seemed to get me in the mood. Wheels down at 8am to beat the heat. Although Marc and Matt were still getting ready so I left about 15 minutes early.
Woody's - Clockwise from the Rockpile... Woody's first. It was an effort just to get all the gear from the hundreds of boxes still littering our house. Hooking the heart rate monitor and gps up was somewhat foreign. I started climbing. Didn't feel too bad. Tried to take it easy but the heart rate wanted to be at 150bpm+. Fine... there's not much you can do about that... you have to turn the pedals over. The Woody's climb was uneventful. I enjoyed being out there. I figured Marc would catch me before the top but I made it. Flew down the backside to the store, bought some gatorade. Marc bought some insulated water bottles so I copied him... they were working well.
Wolfpen - I hate the ride between Woody's and Wolfpen. Wolfpen climb was uneventful... did a little out-of-seat on the steeper parts. My descending skills are definitely tentative right now. I braked hard on the hairpins but took the softer turns hard.
Neel's - Surprised I hadn't been caught I continued up the backside of Neel's. By now the heat was starting to come out and my heart rate was sitting at 160bpm and there wasn't much I could do about it. Still, I was very surprised at how well my legs were handling everything. I mean, 7 months without a ride or run. After six years of big training. I figured something odd would happen. Made it to the top and had a dream... a dream to make it to Turner's Corner before Marc caught me. So I descended. And the heat continued to rise. On the little climb near the bottom I really started to feel the heat. I probably went a bit too hard down the mountain... should have coasted but I really love those descents. And I made it to Turner's Corner.
Neel's Part Deux - A couple minutes after turning around to climb Neel's again Marc and Matt caught me. The plan was to go back around the other way... Neel's, Wolfpen and Woody's back to the car. I was still in high spirits when Marc left me to climb at his own pace. But the heat was upon us and by the top of Neel's I was melted. Heat exhaustion. Power draining from my legs. I knew I would have to turn around and head back to the car the short way. Luckily Marc and Matt had waited for me so I could tell them and say goodbye.
The Worst .8 Miles - I hate that part between Turner's Corner and the Rockpile. Hate it on a good day. Melting in heat, 3.5 hours into my first ride in months... well, I really hated it. I kept watching my GPS. I swear the last 1.2 mile climb took me forever. The last .8 miles just stuck there. I've had my share of explosions and deathmarches back home. I no stranger to distance dilation. But this was something else.
Once I got back to the car I felt fine. As I write this, the next day, I have no soreness at all. I'm motivated to keep getting out there. Thanks to Marc for the invite. I'll have to get back into shape so he doesn't have to wait for me so much.
A couple days ago I was sitting out on the patio enjoying a thunderstorm roll in. Man, I love that. I wanted to do a whole post about how thunder sounds different wherever you are. But then I woke up to a puddle of water this morning and that's a much more rant-friendly topic.
Let's strap in. Or not... I'm honestly too tired to really have at it. I was up until 1am yesterday... electricians working over the entire house. Jeff and Brian rock. They went from morning until the wee hours of the morning. Ran over every element of the electrical system. Replaced all of the switches and outlets. Hung some fixtures. Debugged some broken fuses. Long day for them. Long day for me... four trips to the H Depot.
This morning I was up early working. And I noticed a wet spot on the carpet. Traced it to the wall. Lifted the carpet. Cut a small hole. Dry. Cut another. Found the leak, put a cup under it. No time to debug. This evening my father was over so we cut up the wall to find the leak. A tiny hole in a T joint. Hopefully something we can just plug without having to replace the whole thing.
Pool guy a little late, probably skipping tonight. He/they were gonna clean the filter in the hopes of getting the water clear. Turns out the heater's blown. Shoot me.
Raccoon living in the chimney. Well, between the chimney and the house. Shoot it.
Boxen all over the place still. Just no time to do the unpacking. Busy days.
Massive headache today. Had to head downtown to sign a document and all of a sudden I barfed and had a massive headache. Then on the way home I had to pull off the highway to puke on Mount Paran (nice neighborhood for it.) Made it hope and a couple hours later I'm decent. Still not feeling great but I was able to hop onto a couple conference calls and crank out some email and other stuff. Jeeze, my head.
Aidan's 5th birthday party at Mark and Leslie's this weekend. Anna and Addison in the house! Nice to see them... I hadn't seen Addison since she was in the carrier thingy (baby basket... no... car seat... no... whatver that thing that young parents lug all over the place is called.) Apologies to Aidan as I arrived late. Luckily he had a throng of kiddos to keep him occupied. And a scientist who shot off rockets and made cotton candy! Thanks to Leslie and Mark for having me over! Can't believe Aidan (and Ava) is five already!
Life's kinda hectic right now. I can't pull away from work... too many good things starting to launch. I've spent too long getting here to lose momentum.
Been watching the Tour. Rooting for Andy. Tall and goofy skinny guys like us have to stick together.
I sit here watching the World Cup final. Easily the biggest sporting event on the planet. I haven't followed soccer much lately and it's amazing how quickly it comes back. I wasn't sure who I was rooting for until the first few exchanges. I was more enthusiastic about Holland's progress so I guess I'm rooting for them.
Was up late working. Up early to finish up. Some calls with Alex. Some emails back and forth. I'm in a high-deliverable period for me which means I need to make the best of the productive early morning hours and late evening hours.
You know those bumper stickers that say "My Daughter and My Money go to Georgia Tech"? Well, I need one that says "My Weekends and My Money go to Home Depot"! Headed there again this morning for a bunch of little things... bolts, tools, etc.
Mounted the cable box over the flat screen. Managed to fish the wires up there so that everything's clean. It was a lot of work but the outcome is worth it.
I'd say that my ManCave work space/bedroom is about 85% there. Next up is the basement fitness room... need to set up the treadmill, CompuTrainer and music/media equipment.
Still no deck pickets for safety. Keeping kiddos inside.
Need to move some closet hardware to the basement. And clean some stuff up. Eventually I need to rewire a bunch of the coax cable around the house. Suffice it to say, lots remaining to do.
1 month 29 days ago | Posted to: Ava, Our Daughter
Ava, you are amazing! I love you so much and I am so proud of you. You're growing like a weed, expanding your mind, having fun and being a wonderful daughter. I can't believe that five years has already gone by. I think back to the hurricane smashing the Florida coast as you made your appearance. I'm not yet as good at this parenting thing as I'd like to be so please continue to keep me on my toes! Today we're heading out to Beep-Nana's for your birthday party. Love ya Beetle Bot!
Back online. Finally. Comcast came out today. I had gotten up early and purchased 200 ft of RG6 quad-shielded coax cable. I rewired from the drop to my home NOC, where the cable modem would reside. I've had a lot of trouble with cable signals and old wiring so this time around I decided to bite the bullet and go with the best possible wire infrastructure from the beginning. The $50 should pay itself out over the course of the next six months in the form of me not having to call Comcast weekly to complain.
I think I mentioned that Sr came over to help hang the flat screen in my ManCave. I got it connected to the cable system and to the computer. Had to do some motherboard -> graphics card connecting to make SPDIF audio flow out through the HDMI cable. Works well, although I still haven't mastered the software audio config... have to fiddle with it. Outcome is that I can watch movies from the computer to the flat screen. Not quite a PlanetCarlos.com home media solution... but it works, is high quality and is easier to use than the cable swapping scheme I was using previously.
Control of the playing movies is via VLC's Android app. Basically I start the movie on the computer and then use my phone as a remote control so that I don't have to get up to pause/play/volume. Works well over the in-house wifi.
Pool still incredibly cloudy. However, I did meet Jenny and Don who've lived on this street for 34 years. Very nice couple. Very welcoming of the two young couples... us and another... to the neighborhood. Like Charlie and MJ, they know a lot about the history of our property and look forward to us bringing it back to its former glory. I'm starting to feel some pressure here! Everybody else on the street has a great looking front lawn. Luckily for me we don't have a lawn... it's a wooded area. But it needs some cleaning up. Jenny and Don's son is in the pool business so hopefully he can help me get the pool in order. It's still cloudy and unswimmable. Well, the water is safe and fine... just cloudy. My father and I think it has something to do with the pump/filter configuration.
Still boxen everywhere. We'll get to unpacking them some day. During the days I'm focused on work... got a lot of things kicking off right now. In the evenings I'm tired so I don't get as much done as I'd like to. Which is fine. Chip away at it.
Need to get the CompuTrainer up and going. Looking forward to some workouts.
Not much house progress yesterday... afternoon meetings and morning prep for those. Misc phone calls. Two meetings this morning and then a bunch of email/phone time.
But, I did get to meet our neighbors! Very nice couple. I hope our dogs don't scare them away... we'll be on a full bark collar regimen while they settle in. We talked a bit about the neighborhood and about the house we bought. Always nice to gain some perspective. I really appreciated them stopping by to share a welcome vibe.
One thing they mentioned about the neighborhood... snakes of the copperhead variety. So you all know what comes next... Joe freakout and snake obsession. Low risk of seeing, much less antagonizing, a snake to the point that it strikes. But the kiddos change the equation given their age. I'm already working on snake smarts with Ava ("slowly walk away and get an adult") but the reality is that a shiny object might be tempting to investigate. That lack of kiddo-control makes me want to hyper-control the portion of the risk I can affect... namely the attractiveness of the property from a snake perspective. I'll be destroying some ivy, removing wood piles and generally putting my snake lens on to evaluate the property. We don't have a lawn... it's all wooded with plenty of potential snake havens.
Combine the snakes with the pool and I won't be sleeping well for a while. I just don't like kiddo risk that I can affect hanging out there. Time to squash it.
Installed a new shower head. While we did finally get hot water (yay) the shower head in the basement was an exposed pipe. I know, I'm pretty awesome with the plumbing stuff... lol.
Shower curtain... yep... more awesomeness. Hung some of the paintings. Still need to make it back to Castlebar to remove the flat screen and wall mount.
Got a test kit and now I am an acting pool guy badass. In all honesty I have no idea what I'm doing but what possible harm could come from slinging industrial chemicals in 50+ lb increments? The water's still very cloudy and I'm battling Ph issues. I say battling... I invest 5 minutes in the morning and 5 in the evening. Pool isn't a high life priority at the moment.
Frec and Dylan were over last night. Nice to share the danger... I mean, excitement... of the new casa with them. We had some Johnny's pizza which was deemed not as good as the Vinings Johnny's. They do, however, exceed the poor service high mark (or is it the low mark?) set by the dismissive Vinings crew (that said, one or two of them at the Vinings location are very nice to me.)
House feels about 65% there. Cable/internet coming on Friday... that will be a breath of fresh info-air. We have to figure out how to fund a tall safety fence around the pool. I need to wire the dog's invisible fence. We have still-packed boxen by the dozen in many rooms. Along with teetering child safety-assaulting half-assembled furniture fixtures in some rooms. The back deck took a tubmle when RJ fell 10 feet off a ladder and broke his hand (also had a huge bruise on his thigh.) Hoping he recovers quickly. We'll keep the deck doors vigilantly locked until he can add the pickets so that kids can't, you know, slip through and fall 20 feet onto concrete.
Have I mentioned that kiddo safety is keeping me up at night? We'll get there. Somehow. Between meetings and work todos we'll squeeze it all in. Good problems to have because Ava and Emme are in the school district we wanted them to be in.
Spent the early morning through early afternoon working. Got a bunch done but it was stressful... every time somebody called my phone dumped me off of the internet. Reminded me of the old days of modems when call waiting would kick you offline. Despite trying to be in Maker Mode this week I'm taking a lot of Manager Mode calls. Once the kids went to bed I got a few good hours of work in. Meetings tomorrow and Wednesday. Really need to be in Maker Mode this week but I'll make due.
Rusty came over to work on the perimeter fence. Sr came over with some more pool chemicals and we got the stove installed. I had the crew swap the stoves... liked the one from the old house better.
Lots of unpacking. Lots of working on little safety things for the kids who were around all day.
Got my main file server up and running, networked away from my bedroom/office so that the fans and heat don't annoy me.
Can't wait for the gas guy so that we can have hot water. Looking like that may be 4 days away. The cold shower today was not cool. Can't wait for the cable/internet guy. Or girl. They could send a girl.
Cher is the working title of our new house for the blog... get your mind out of the gutter. Well, as suspected, I rocked about 1.5 hrs of sleep last night. These night spooks are so illogical and inexplicable. Not to mention annoying and exhausting.
I was awake so I worked unpacking and setting things up. Big trip to El Home Depot. And a big trip to Target. Small trip to Dunkin' Donuts.
My main focus is on safety issues. Keeping people out (it's a nice neighborhood but, you know, doors that lock are always kinda nice.) Preventing kiddos from falling off of decks. Etc.
Worked on my office a bit. Sr came over in the early afternoon. Re-wired the stove. Hooked up the dryer. Put together Terp's bed. Hung some drapes. Fixed the garbage disposal. Shocked the pool which is fluorescent green with algae... thanks to sr for the chemicals and skimmer thingy. Hung some pictures. Put down some of those shower no-slippey things. Moved boxes up from down. And down from up.
One of the red ticket items for me today was buying some wooden dowels and cutting them to length so that the four sliding glass doors can't possibly open. Damn imaginary intruders.
Bought some motion-activated security lights. It's East Cobb... not East LA. With the kids I'm just cautious until proven otherwise.
Still no hot water or cable. Probably get hot water on Tuesday. And cable/internet on the 9th.
I am truly exhausted. The kids and Terp arrived a couple hours ago. I'm crashing hard, going to bed early. Really hoping for some sleep tonight.
What else, what else? Not much, I suppose. Coming up we need to get a pool fence built. Deck repair to bring it up to kiddie code (they might be able to fit through them right now.) Perimeter fence needs some repair... a tree fell on top of it... which mean... chainsaw time... awesome.
Not sure what to call the new house for the blog. Let's call her Cher for now.
The move to Cher was hella tiring. It's 2am. Recall that 36 hours ago, Fri at 2pm, we went from a standstill to moving mode. Heather and I were up late packing. And then up early packing.
Hired a team of six. They showed up at 9am. Four dudes, two ladies. I reserved the truck and Sr. picked it up. A 26' Penske. Ladies packed plates. Dudes packed truck. They are master truck packers.
While they pulled boxes and heavy stuff Heather, Sr and I packed what else we could.
I got to drive the beast over to the new house. Enjoyed that. Unloading wasn't much fun but it never is. Back to the old house by about 3pm to grab more heavies. We thought we had 1/2 of a truck. We filled it up again.
Tiring day.
Then to Marc's to watch UFC with Matthew. Great event. Won't spoil it if you haven't seen it.
Back at Cher now. Terp's with the kiddos in Villa Rica. She's doing the Peachtree in the morning. I'm sleeping through it. Exhausted.
No internet at Cher until the 9th so I'm connecting through the Droid.
An absolute ton of things to do tomorrow to bring the house into the reasonable safety zone for the kids. Not at all unexpected. Just a lot to do. And I'm on some tight deadlines with work this week. Don't have much time to work on the house. I set my main dev machine up this evening and I'm going to have to dig into work Monday.
Thanks to Sr for all of the help today... couldn't have done it without you.
Thanks to Terp for taking seriously my urgency to get moved... love you buggle.
Kinda spooky being at a new place alone with about six broken external door locks. Even in a well-locked familiar abode I'll usually night attack phantom intruders once or twice. And with two Monster energy drinks in the last two hours I doubt I'll get to sleep much tonight.
No food in the house. I'll probably work on a ToDo list for tomorrow.
So, yes, I'm close to babbling incoherency. Apologies... maybe some better thoughts tomorrow... and maybe some pics.
Main thought in my head: so glad Ava and Emme are in a better school district.
"They don't call it go time because it's not time to go." - Me, ten minutes ago
At noon today we were not planning on moving. But by 2pm we had decided that tomorrow is the day. Just too many commitments on the weekends over the next few weeks. Too many meetings during the weeks. And no desire to pay double mortgages for months like we did with the last move. It is go time... declares Joe... setting himself up for sure disaster.
We did finally get the house after pursuing it for six months. Had a deal with the previous owners. Bank foreclosed, nullifying the deal. Nobody bought it on the courthouse steps... we had checks in hand. The bank went dark on it for months. Finally Heather found a way in. And then they assigned it to another broker. Who went dark on it and ignored faxed offers. When it finally went onto the market we had an offer in the next day. They played some crazy games not worth discussing here and we responded with badass negotiating skillz (oh, yeah, z), finally getting the house. At the closing I expected a monkey in a purple silk tuxedo to pop out of the ceiling yelling, "no house, no house!" Luckily, no monkey was to be found.
End game is, of course, a new school for Ava and Emme. East Cobb. Second best public elementary school in the state. One of the best high schools. Good middle school. MASSIVE (yes, internet caps mean yelling) relief to have them in a better school. Helps me focus on business and financial stability.
Got home after making the moving decision with Heather over the phone, cranked out a few afternoon calls and since then have been boxing stuff up like a crazy man. Hoping Heather joins me soon... lots to do. Picking up a 26' truck tomorrow at 8am. Got a crew lined up. Planning three trips. One trip for furniture, heavies and boxed stuff. One for the rest. And after the crew leaves one trip with just me getting the rest of the rest.
I slept 3 hours last night. I may sleep less tonight. We have to go from a completely unpacked house to another house in about 28 hours. My back already hurts... getting old... poor core conditioning. Also, bonus, feeling a little sore throat coming on.
Tomorrow, of course, moving day. But also, UFC day... Lesnar in the octagon! Marc and I have been catching up on recorded UFCs for, oh, two months now to be ready to watch the fight live this weekend. Looking forward to it.
It's go time.
Update 6:05PM: a) i am a packing machine... i eat disorder and poop cardboard boxes b) holy f we have a lot of kids toys.
Update 10:45PM: Heather made it home just as I burned out. Sr came over. We headed to Pongo's where they drank margaritas and it almost came to fisticuffs between me and the family letting their kids run rampant. I'm all for letting the kids have fun but we couldn't talk over them. When I said something I heard a snarky comment from the father and I couldn't let it go, initiated a little tiff. Whatever. Mostly hated making it uncomfortable for Heather but the kids really were out of control and I was already not in the mood.
Off to Home Depot for some packing paper. Now it's 10:45p. We've gotten a lot packed. But there's still a ton to do. Five members on the rented team plus Heather, Sr and me. Rusty will make it over around noon after picking up his Peachtree number. I'm pretty exhausted right now. Maybe a couple hours of packing and a little Whale Wars to wind down before bed.
2 months 7 days ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts
Haven't ridden the bike since 2009. Holy batmans batman. I always tend to look for something epic to boost me back into things when I experience a lull. Last week I geared up on Tuesday planning a 23 mile run on zero running for 6 months. I'm an idiot. Luckily I was also very tired from a long work night and snoozed my way to long run self-destruction. Which rhymes.
Today was an uncharacteristically low key start back at it. I walked by the bike, now covered in dust, and noticed that it was 6/1. That seemed like a reasonably elegant day to start riding again (I loves the maths) so I threw on the bike shoes and spun up ye ole CompuTrainer (they should spell it Comp-u-trainer... and add an o-rama to the end of it.) Surprisingly, I held 220 watts for most of the ride. Yes, I calibrated.
I think back to many of my I'm-overtrained-no-I'm-not workouts where I struggled to do the same power output. Kinda funny. It took me a long time to shed the expectations and simply reset my fitness clock. Setting ironman PRs is a fun ass pastime and one I hope to get back to some day. But with the fog of ironWar filling the air it's hard to gain perspective... a week without a megaworkout seems like a life-threatening affair when, of course, it isn't. Plenty of room for logical vs. emotional self-analysis. But not today.
All those blog posts at the end of last season about just enjoying things? I was lying... mostly to myself... kind of to you. When I got sick after the most solid 13 weeks of training ever, just 7 weeks before the big race, I was disheartened and from then forward was phoning it in. I wanted to enjoy things. I even kind of thought I was. But I was deflated. Stacking season upon season, always improving, squeezing seconds and watts out of diet, core strength, sleep time, two-a-days, interval sets, protein powder, plyometrics... it's kinda hard, you know.
Would have probably pulled out of the funk by February but, as you may know, I got mono. And with it every germ that I came into contact with sent me on a one week symptom-fest. I'm still dealing with optimistic infections that my body doesn't kick very easily these days. I blamed colds/flus for a while but that was just a way to avoid what I really knew... that I needed a longer term break from training. As I came out of the mono phase I just went with the flow and didn't push cycling/running. I did some swimming in the mornings... just to get out of the house and burn some stress. Plus, women in bikinis... enough said... mmmmm, women in bikinis.
What was I talking about? Oh, well, lost it. Good bike ride. Did I mention that it felt amazing? It really did. Already looking forward to the next ride.
Step Down Knee Issue
