Tweaked

After a fairly easy run, I had a great workout at karate. Lots of boxing drills and I was dripping sweat. Everything felt great until after class. Then I tweaked the right knee.

There’s a little girl, about 7, who’s the brother of our first black belt. Kendall always plays with her, but after class I’ve been trying to help her learn a good cartwheel. Not sure how it started, but she always wants to show me how she’s doing. So I watched, and then she said she’d been working on handstands. I demonstrated a couple, but I twisted myself a little and would fall to the right side. I’d pull my legs down and land on the right one. Not slamming, but hard enough that my knee felt tweaked.

I did it 3 or 4 times, kind of stupid and after walking around the grocery store it was sore. I’m back home, ice on the knee, trying to let it heal. I’m sure it will be OK tomorrow, but I’ll skip karate, have a light run, and try to get it better.

When it rains…

It pours.

I come back from 4 days unwired, a bunch of writing done, to a laptop that’s head, a site that won’t take posts, and a ton of email and articles.

At least my external HDD reader is reading the drive. I’m copying stuff off now, but it’s not a good day for me in the computer world.

Looks like I need a new laptop, but with cyber Monday, it seems that so many sites are down. I can’t get the HP or Lenovo sites to respond.

Grrrrrrr

Tossing Hay

Actually Tia did most of the tossing, but I helped load the wheelbarrow and pulled it around the track. It was a nice, fairly warm morning, and it’s good to get some tangible work done, but the hay dust blew around and it irritates my skin and has me coughing a little.

Not much fun on windy days.

Unwired

I didn’t have Internet access for 4 days while we were in the mountains. Actually I could have purchased it, but for uploading blogs it didn’t seem like a great idea. Plus I’d be tempted to work if I did that.

So I did some offline blogging, but for the most part did nothing but hang out. It was good to get away, but lots of work today.

Julia & Julie

I’m not sure why I watched Julia and Julie on a recent airplane trip, but I did. It’s not really the kind of movie I usually watch, but I found myself enjoying it.

What does this have to do with running? The story is of a lady whose life is a bit of a mess. She’s not happy with her job and is looking for something to give her life meaning. She enjoys cooking and Julia Child is a bit of an idol for her.

So she decides to work her way through The Joy of Cooking, the famous cookbook of Julia Child. It has about 540-some recipes in it. Her husband says she needs some type of deadline as motivation, and suggests a year. She’s a little flabbergasted, but she agrees and decides to blog about it.

As you might guess, it’s a struggle, but she perseveres, documenting her journey through cooking something every day. And along the way she discovers what I did:

It’s the act of doing something every day that gives you meaning. It sustains you, and it’s a huge accomplishment. It provides a lot of mental satisfaction and energy.

Julie goes on to a cooking show and some success (it’s based on a true story), and while my running isn’t likely to give me any material success, it’s an accomplishment that I will treasure forever.

Split Up Day

Saturday was a split up day for us. I went and registered Kendall for snowboarding lessons first thing and then came back to start getting ready. Lessons at Copper are actually easier, starting at 10, not 9 like the other places. So we had time to get her up, fed, geared up, without too much of  a hassle. Kyle left early to go alone and so after Tia helped us get Kendall over to the rental place, Delaney and I took off.

I had a good day with Delaney, the two of us going up and down the lifts, moving from the blues to the greens on two faces of the mountain, handling things well. We went over a couple times to see how Kendall was doing in lessons. She seemed to do fine, and so we kept going around. It was a good day, cloudy, cool, but not too bad overall. We didn’t really need hats under the helmets, and I even shot some video with the Flip without my hand freezing.

We texted Kyle while we got lunch, but never saw him all day. We did run into another Boy Scout family up for the day, and talked with them briefly, but mostly it was Delaney and I going up and down smoothly. Except for one time. There is a short steep drop on one of the blues that goes down about 20 feet. I hit it on my heels, dropping in and expecting to curve around some trees to the middle of the slope. As I was turning, I saw a kid coming in fast from behind me. I couldn’t stop, and I didn’t think I’d be able to turn back on my toes before the SLOW sign in front of me. So I flattened out, arms crossed, and tried to slip under the sign. I almost did it, but my board caught one of the poles and I took out the sign.

Somewhat embarrassing. Delaney was behind me and came up to see if I was OK. Once he saw I was, he laughed a bit and we headed down the mountain. We timed ourselves, and a complete circuit thanks up and down was about 30 minutes for us. So we went until about 2:40 when it became hard to see. The mountain faces East, and so it darkens early and it’s hard for me to see the bumps in the hill. We headed over to see Kendall and saw her finish her lesson and helped her get up a few times as she moved down the bunny slope. She seemed to be doing well and enjoying herself. She said at the end that  she was OK with either skiing or boarding, so we’ll see what happens.

Afterwards Tia and I tried to relax with a drink in a lounge. They only had happy hour food, and the kids were upset, which was really annoying. We couldn’t relax well, though the beer and vodka helped a little.

Kendall really wanted to swim, so I took her to the health club where I had a short run before playing in the pool with her. As we were closing the day, the center square at Copper announced that is was Fiego Saturday and Santa Claus would be skydiving at 6:10. So we headed back , meeting the boys and Tia in the square. Kendall and Delaney were both excited, which was neat. The weather precluded Santa from skydiving, but they brought him in on a snowmobile, him being pulled on skis with a rope and the kids liked it. Kendall ran over to the tree and was in front of him as they lit the tree. Afterwards she stood there awhile just looking at the tree. The magic of Christmas is amazing sometimes.

Fireworks were scheduled for 7, which was 30 minutes away and we struggled to decide what to do. Tia and Kyle wanted to eat, the little ones wanted fireworks. We decided to get some coffee and hot chocolate, and as it was being made, the fireworks started, with Kendall and Delaney racing outside to watch them. Once they were done, we headed to a nice Mexican dinner, with a few margaritas before heading back to the room. Kendall felt a little altitude sick, so she went right to bed, with me following soon after.

A good Saturday at Copper.

So much so that I think we want to book a week here next Christmas and get passes here. The village is nice and self contained, and unlike most of the resorts our timeshare has, you can easily walk to the slopes from the unit. Keystone and Breck haven’t made it easy, requiring buses to get around. Plus passes at Copper can work at Steamboat, so we could book a week out there as well. It’s a little expensive, me finding an $8 box of Cherrios that I declined to buy, but we could load up groceries and have a good time here.

Friday

The day after Thanksgiving. Up slow, eating our continental breakfast in a hotel in Dillon, and then we headed to Breckenridge. We managed to get Kendall on skis, and Tia dropped us off to begin a day of skiing.

A crowded day.

We had equipment, lift tickets, nothing to slow us down and we walked up to the green chairlift and then waited for 15-20 minutes to get a ride up. It was a 2 person, so I went with Kendall and we went up. Then with the boys, we headed down, but Kendall was nervous. She was going slow, side to side in long paths. I stayed with her, helped her up on a couple of falls, but we took a long time. The boys were waiting and upset at the lines and wait. I told them Keystone wouldn’t be better, so they went off to try blues while I took Kendall over to the beginning slope.

We went down 3 or 4 times before she got hungry. It was less crowded, and we got up and down quickly, but it was barely a slope and not much fun for me. Still it’s an investment in Kendall and I’m hoping she improves. We ate, met the boys, and then headed back. Two runs later she was complaining of her stomach hurting, though I suspect she just wanted to stop.

So we went into the restaurant, she listened to music and played on the iPod while I watched some TV, and broke down and got a beer. I needed to run, it was early, but I was frustrated with the skiing and thought I should relax. I had sent Tia a note, but she was in a movie, and I figured my ski day was over.

The boys met us shortly after that, saying Delaney’s bindings were broken. I think they were just frustrated trying to get them closed. He was at the limit of the bindings and it was a pain for me as well. He bought size 8 boots, saying 7s were too small, despite the fact he wears 6 shoes. In any case, we gave up, I had a beer, and things didn’t seem so bad.

Kyle had also been complaining about his snow pants. Delaney’s didn’t really fit, so he wore Kyle’s and Kyle wore Tia’s. Apparently, however, plain black pants aren’t “cool” enough for a teenager. So when Tia picked us up we went to Frisco and shopped for stuff. Used bindings for Delaney and pants for Kyle. Everyone was pleased.

I had hoped we’d go check-in and get pizza or something, but Kyle and Tia wanted Chinese food, so we ate in town before heading to Copped to check in. Once again, I had a full stomach, but I thought that I should try the run again, so once again I headed out on a cold, winter night in the mountains for a short jog.

It’s been a good vacation so far, despite things not being perfect, not a lot of snowboarding, and not my choice of food. I’m relaxed, mostly out of touch with work, and relaxing with the family, a beer and movie

Running Up High

When we got done with skiing on Thursday, about 5:00, we were trying to decide what to do. We needed to go to the hotel and check in, and find food. It being a holiday, we were worried about things closing, so we went to Wendy’s quickly, got food, and headed to the hotel.

I was seriously considering skipping running. It had been 442 days and it was late, I had hot food, and the hotel had nothing for exercise. To top it off, the temperature was dropping quickly and I didn’t have a lot of clothes to wear. I ate with everyone else, and then we were talking about a movie. I thought this would be a nice place to stop, and then start a new streak on Friday.

Something stopped me. And I decided to give it a try. Despite a heavy Wendy’s meal in my stomach, I decided to put on a sweatshirt and head outside. I planned on a slow jog, and while it was cold, and while I felt full, I kept up a steady jog down the road and before I knew it, I’d been running for 8 minutes.  I turned around, headed back, and finished a 1.4mi run.

Tonight, Friday, it was almost the same thing. We left Breck around 3:30 and went to do a little shopping. People got hungry, and we ate at 5:00, getting to our condo in Copper Mountain at 6:30. Another great time to stop, especially after I had a beer in the afternoon. But I couldn’t stop again, and headed out for a colder run, at a higher altitude at Copper Mountain.

It felt good, and 444 days in, I still enjoy the running. It was hard to get started, hard to endure the chilly air, and I’m glad I didn’t have to fight wind as well. It would have been more of a challenge, and I’ve have had more reasons to quit if it was blowing.

It’s definitely harder to run at altitude, but I’ve enjoyed it, and I feel the satisfaction of accomplishing things, especially after not getting much of a workout on the slopes.

Thanksgiving 2009

Another Thanksgiving spent in the Colorado mountains for us. This our third year of skipping the traditional football/turkey day and instead heading up to ski. It’s also the second year Tia couldn’t ski because she got hurt.

I had hoped to get up early and get Kendall in lessons, but we didn’t get packed, and after karate on Wed night, I decided not to worry. It would have been a stretch to get up here anyway by 8:30, so I decided not to worry, and got to sleep in a little. We packed, we helped feed horses, and left just before 10. We got to Keystone just about 12, and the boys headed up to snowboard. Kendall didn’t want to ski, so we left her with Tia to hang out and we headed up.

We had some good runs, going up and down on blues and greens until about 4:00. The boys move at about the same speed and we did well. I would let them get ahead and then race down near them, sometimes getting a little ahead. I sprayed Delaney with snow a couple times, and so then I’d stop down below and let him come down and try to spray me. He had a good time with that until 3:30, when the sun was setting past the mountain.

At that point it was getting darker and hard to see in the shadows, so Delaney and I hung out and waited for Kyle to take one last run. Kyle got down and then Tia and Kendall came down as well. We headed away from the mountain and looked for food. Not much was available, and while I wanted to run, I knew things would be closing soon. We couldn’t decide and finally hit Wendy’s for some takeout before checking into our hotel in Dillon. It was cold, and kids wanted to see a movie, so I decided to try a jog, on a full stomach.

It was cold, it was late, and I moved slow. But I got it done, came back, showered, and since no one was moving, I lay down with Tia while Kendall watched TV. The boys were in their own room and I ended up falling alseep early. I had taken Benedryl before we skied and I think I fell asleep on a couple of the gondola rides a few times.

It was a good day. Not perfect, not a great family day throughout the day, but a good time away from life in the mountain.

Learning Guitar

I’m a hack on the guitar, meaning that I play rarely and for fun, just goofing around. I’m probably a lower intermediate player, understanding a lot about music and how to play, read music, tabs, etc., but not with a lot of talent. However I enjoy messing around at times.

I’ve wanted to get better, especially after I didn’t have a bunch of songs to play when we went camping. I had hoped to get 4-5 songs done and have people sing along, but got busy in the spring/summer and didn’t learn them. I have a couple I can play, but often it’s just riffs and pieces of songs.

Today I was looking for a song on YouTube for a link to share with someone. It was actually Bad Company’s Shooting Star. While I searched on YouTube, one of the related links was a guitar lesson for another Bad Company song (Feel Like Making Love). I watched it and was surprised how much I learned in a few minutes. Definitely easier than reading tabs and trying to work it out.

I’ve wondered about some of the online lessons and if they were worth the $5-10 a month. I bet they are, though I’m not sure I’d take the time right now to dig in. Something to consider as I move forward in life. Maybe I can learn a few more things.

In Charge

I had to run our weekly conference call this week. My boss is out of the office, but he’s been trying to get everyone to participate by having different people run meetings on different weeks. I’m not the best employee in this sense, and not always prepared, so I’ve tried to avoid running one over the last few months.

That stopped today, or yesterday, as I got an email from him saying he was gone and I needed to run the meeting. So I was on the hook as I grabbed my laptop and headed down (literally) to the basement today.

I ended up doing an OK job, despite not having an agenda ready. Usually someone prepares one based on feedback, but I didn’t do that, and had even deleted the old email from my boss where I had 2 or 3 things he wanted me to cover. I covered the two main items we’d emailed about, but kept thinking I was forgetting something.

Fortunately just before I asked for Any Other Business and closed the meeting I remembered the holiday schedule was on the list and covered that.

Now we’ll see how long I can avoid being in charge of another one.

Cleaning out Tempdb

I saw a post recently about the tempdb being overly large and causing issues for a user. The person was having issues shrinking the files and wasn’t sure what to do. Someone else responded that snapshot isolation might be an issue and I found that interesting. I hadn’t thought about tempdb being a place where snapshot isolation drops things but it does. This entry in BOL says:

“The tempdb database must have enough space for the version store.”

What this seems to imply is that if your database uses row versioning it takes up space in tempdb, which might limit your ability to shrink tempdb. There’s another entry (Row Versioning Resource Usage) that seems to confirm this in that there are possible conditions where tempdb space might not be freed.

Not sure if this is something many people encounter, especially as I don’t see many people shrinking tempdb often, but it’s a good piece of trivia to keep in mind.

Three More Electives

We had Boy Scouts tonight, the last meeting before the Court of Honor in December and the chance to sign off merit badge requirements. Delaney had 3 that were essentially done, and so we went tonight so that he could get those done. His metalworking just needed the Scoutmaster signature, which he got right away.

Then we were a little confused. He hadn’t gotten his blue cards for aviation, and needed a replacement for Space Exploration. The lady that is in charge of cards wasn’t there, but fortunately another leader had some and gave Delaney two new ones. He had everything done for Space Exploration, and went to meet with a counselor and go that one signed off.

Then it was aviation. He’d forgotten to do one requirement: the career research. Luckily we had the iPhone and looked up some things on the web, getting the education and training needed for a pilot. Then it was time for review, and so Delaney went to meet with the aviation counselor and got that one signed off. So he’s got three more badges coming. In two weeks he’ll then have 6 merit badges.

There’s another Court of Honor in March, which will be Delaney’s one year anniversary of being a Boy Scout. By then he should have his second class rank as well and I’m hoping to get him motivated enough to get another merit badge as well.

Not bad for a year of scouts.

Comprehensive Check

I ran Kahli up to the vet today and they wanted to give her a comprehensive exam and for me to leave her until 6. However I didn’t have time for that with other stuff going on tonight. So I opted for just blood work. They then said they could fit one in quickly if I left her for 30 minutes, so I did, running to Home Depot for a couple things while they checked her out.

Everything was find, and they kept trying to push some other medications haven’t worked for us. Apparently they are worried about ulcers in her stomach, so since I declined their $70 medicine, they said to give her Pepcid every day.

Hopefully she’ll do well while we’re out of town next weekend.

Fading Fast

Another loss for the Broncos yesterday, and despite a fantastic 6-0 start, they are now 6-4 and I can see them finishing 7-9 or even 6-10. If they go into the final game of the season against KC at 6-9, I could see them drop that game.

I’m not sure what’s wrong, though I think that Simms is definitely not a quarterback that I want to see playing on the field. I liked him in Tampa Bay and hoped he’d compete for the starting job this year, but watching him against Washington and then San Diego, I think he’s just lost all his confidence and his timing is way off. That’s too bad for him and I hope he turns things around.

However I’m not sure what’s wrong with the Broncos. They can’t stop anyone, can’t stop turnovers, and seem to be unable to move the ball consistently. They’re failing in the red zone on both sides of the ball. I wish I could go back and review some of the earlier games and see if they’re playing differently or if other teams are figuring out things that let them take advantage of the holes in the Mike Nolan defense.

Where do they go from here? I’m not sure they can beat the Giants or Eagles, both physical teams that can run. I would like to think they can be Oakland and split with KC, but they’ll likely lose to the Colts. So my guess is they finish 8-8 like this:

Giants – L

KC – L

Colts – L

Oak – W

Eagles – L

KC – W

I’m not sure that gets them in the playoffs, and that Washington loss really hurts now. I could see them sweeping KC and possibly beating the Giants. 10-6 is still a possibility, especially with Philly being flaky at times.

My other team, the Cowboys, is not doing much better. With a 7-3 record, I could easily see them going anywhere from 2-4 to 5-1 to finish.

It’s going to be an interesting final 6 weeks.

Sore Spots

I went for a massage today and it was great. I had a new therapist and he did a great job, finding some real tight spots in my legs that I didn’t know I had. That was surprising to me since I didn’t even know they were there. By the end they felt better, but I still have a few tight spots.

I tend to try new therapists fairly often, going back to one 2 or 3 times before trying someone else. I think I’m partially searching for an amazing therapist, but also looking to see what else is out there.

I think I’ll try a hot stone massage next week.

The Kid Vet

I feel like she’s a kid, at least with the way she’s acting. I went by to get a refill for Kahli’s medicine. She’s really struggled the last few days, barely able to walk, much less stand up. We’ve had to help her up, and with vacation coming, we needed to get her set. So I go in and they won’t refill it because the new vet says that they want to monitor Kahli’s kidneys and she mentioned this before, so I have to bring Kahli in for blood work.

We live 20 miles away, so this isn’t a slight issue, and we’re going on vacation. No sympathy, and she says she won’t do it. The other vet we’ve used for years just used to give us the prescription to help Kahli deal with her knee pain. Unfortunately she’s not there on Mondays so I was stuck.

I’m sure that this young girl is trying to make sure that Kahli is safe, but given our history there, I’m a little shocked that I couldn’t even get a weeks worth of pills. I somewhat suspect she’s a corporate girl, trying to adhere to all regulations and maybe even running up the charges and work. That’s a little conspiracy-ish, but I wouldn’t be surprised by it.

In any case, I need to run Kahli up there tomorrow, which is very, very annoying. It makes me want to switch vets just for that reason.

Keystone

Day 3 skiing this year for me and it's not even Thanksgiving yet. On a good pace to enjoy the mountains this year.

I took the Ks today, leaving Delaney back with his friend after a sleepover for his birthday party. Kyle and I packed up this morning and left around 7:30, picking up Kendall from a friend's house. We made good time up Keystone, a nice easy drive with the roads clear. Another pleasant day on the slopes, though a little slow. Every time Kendall fell, she seemed to get slower and slower on the slopes.

Still it was fun and a nice day for the three of us. Looking forward to next week back up there. for the holiday weekend.

Volunteering for Thanksgiving

We had planned on volunteering this morning at the food bank, committing to it about a month ago. On one hand I was sorry since this was the first black belt test at our karate studio. The first set of students going through, and I’d like Delaney to see it. However there are a few kids he’s trained with and fallen behind over the last year as we’ve been busy, so I was worried about that.

We headed down, minus Kendall since she was more interested in going with Mom to see friends. We’ve been homebodies quite a bit over the last month or so, and I didn’t argue. We’ll have lots of time to volunteer as my aim is to get there once a month.

It turned out that were weren’t even needed. There were about 10-12 people today, usually we’ve only see 3-4 other people out there helping. Still it was nice to help out, and Delaney did a great job of finding things to do. He also entertained a little girl that was about 3 for awhile, playing with her on the playground.

Now a little downtime for Delaney and a little work for me before Delaney’s birthday party this afternoon.

Clutch Woes

We were leaving karate last night when Delaney said I had a text message on my phone. He said it was something about Kyle's clutch. I checked it, and sure enough, clutch was not working. He said it went out on the way home.

So I asked where he was. He said "home, where else?" So followed up asking where the car was and apparently it was in our driveway. The clutch had issues as he came down our road, and he basically coasted into the driveway. It was partly in the driveway, but we managed to drive around it.

So today he borrowed the Prius to get to school and I towed his car up to the house when I got back from taking Kendall and called AAA to get it towed. I did look under the hood, though I suspect a broken cable or spring in the clutch assembly. It feels like I should dig into it, but with Delaney's party tomorrow, and not really having a good space to work, I think it's best if I just get a pro to look at it. I could easily get started tonight and get nothing done by Monday whereas the shop would likely have it fixed by then, or maybe even today.

Rigoberta Menchu Tum

Kyle joined Peace Jam a few years ago when he started high school. They’re a group that’s dedicated to making the world a better place. It’s not just through peace, but through education, recycling, and other ways of setting good examples. If you check out the front page now, there is video from Kyle’s school the other day when he 1992 Noel Peace Prize Winner, Riboberta Menchu Tum came to speak.

It was an honor for the school, the Peace Jam members, and Kyle especially to have her come speak. He got to escort her into the gym (pictures coming) and ask her some questions. He is so fluent in Spanish that he was chosen as one of the people to greet her.

He’d been working after school helping get things prepared for her visit, and was really excited and nervous. He asked Tia and I to support him, and we were happy to head to the school Tues afternoon for the assembly. The whole school came out for the last hour where the Peace Jam group club was honored and then Rigoberta gave a short speech through a translator.

When Kyle asked us to go, I looked up her book on Google Books and read a few chapters that were online of her early life. She grew up, an indigenous Indian in Guatemala, poor, and oppressed. After much of her family was killed by the military with the country at war, she began organizing people and protesting, leaving her country under the threat of death to continue her work overseas. She’s one of the few women to win the prize and continues her work today.

It was neat to see her, though the speech was a little hard for me to listen to through a translator. I had to leave early to get the little kids, but Tia stayed back and got to meet her with the Peace Jam group. As much as her particular passion and fight doesn’t speak to me, I’m glad there are people out there doing that work.

And it was neat to see Kyle so excited about the event and to see the great work Peace Jam is doing. They’ve made a big difference at the school implementing recycling and energy savings.

A Great Workout

We had a visiting instructor at karate tonight and he worked us through a bunch of Muay Thai combinations that had me sweating pretty good. I think most everyone worked hard, and Delaney was sweating pretty good by the end. Corey and I were fairly drenched, working each other pretty hard. At least for awhile. He got gassed pretty good and I tweaked my right knee somehow. I think it might have been tired after snowboarding because I wasn’t getting a good twist on the punching combinations and it started to hurt on some of them.

Time for some ice.

Birthday Snow

I mentioned to Delaney a few days ago that I’d take him snowboarding on his birthday if he wanted. He seemed excited, and asked me again yesterday if we could go. He even talked to his teachers on Tuesday, telling them he wouldn’t be at school Wednesday, and asking them to give him his work ahead of time. He told me when he got home Tuesday night that he was set for snowboarding.

So I slept in a little, got Kendall to school, and then Delaney and I headed out to Keystone mountain for our first day of snowboarding this season. Actually his first day, my second.

We got to Keystone just about 10, having left the house about 8:20. The roads were fine, and I started my conference call as we parked. We dressed and get ready, me using the mute and speakerphone functions to get through the call and still be productive. We ended up walking to the gondola, with my finishing up as we went through the village.

It was a beautiful day, about 40F, sunny, and not much wind. We headed up to the top and checked the big trail map board. I was a little worried that only blues were open, and just 3 or 4 near the gondola, but Delaney didn’t seem worried. He needed a few runs to get comfortable last year, but he was ready to go this year.

We headed down Spring Dipper and he did fine, as you can see above. There was one steep part that had him nervous briefly, but he got through it, and then did fine the next time. We had 3 or 4 runs before taking a break for lunch.

The lodge was almost deserted at 1:00 on a Wednesday in November, so we enjoyed a quiet lunch, not having to fight for space, and then went out for 3 more runs. We could see more and more shadows falling across the runs, and so we were trying to be careful. It gets really hard to see for me, and even with Delaney’s glasses, he was a little worried.

We headed home, getting back in time to get Kendall to tutoring and then have a family birthday dinner at Olive Garden.

A good birthday day for my 11 year old.

Woefully Behind

I’ve been beat the last few nights, and despite having things to blog about, I’m woefully behind. A headache Wed and then just tired last night, I need to catch up on life.

Walking in the snow

Sometimes the chores around the ranch feel like this, a long walk:

This was my walk today out to the west pasture to feed the black horses, Nina and Gemini. They’re locked up out there and we have to walk hay out there a couple times a day and check their water. It’s not much harder than feeding the others, but it’s definitely a walk across the 500ft or so to get their. I saw the clean, unbroken snow and took that route, making my own path.

Tia’s arm was hurting, so I went out there to check on things. It’s not hard work, and it doesn’t take that long, but it’s a constant trudge. We have to do it every day to take care of things. Today it was a steady set of chores:

• fill the wheelbarrow with hay
• pull it out and make piles for the main herd
• fill the wheelbarrow with hay
• pull it out to the west pasture
• muck manure out of stalls.
• check water
• Feed and water the kittens
• Check for cat poop on the ground and scoop it up

and with snow on the driveway, I fired up the tractor and ran it down our driveway and the road. It wasn’t that bad, and Kyle got out OK in his car (I used the truck for the little kids), but the less that melts on the road, the less erosion there is. So a couple of sweeps with the blade push a lot of the snow off, preventing it from melting and pulling off road base.

So about 45 minutes of steady chores. Something that doesn’t come often enough to complain about (for me), but it does happen enough for me to appreciate the value of steady effort.

A Quiet Day

I had thought about going skiing, or taking Delaney to the karate run today, but with a winter storm in the works yesterday, and a tired, sore body, I decided it would be better to sleep in. I woke up with Tia once around 7:30 or so, but then drifted back to sleep, getting up around 9. After making coffee, I headed out to the barn to help with horses. I've still been worried that Tia is doing too much, so I didn't want her straining.

It wasn't too cold, or too snowy, but it was lightly flurrying and with enough wind to have it coming down sideways, we had all horses still locked up. So I helped feed and then ran the tractor up the driveway once to clear things a little. It wasn't much snow, 3-4", but it had drifted in a few places, so I made it easier to get out.

We cooked with the kids and had a nice quiet morning, relaxing and putting up some curtains on the back door. A little football and then a trip to the store for invitations for Delaney's birthday, and then enchiladas for dinner. Tia wanted to make them and I helped out since she can't really wrap them up herself.

Now a little work before the end of our weekend.

Upgraded TiVo

Our TiVo started skipping when I was out of town last week, so I ordered a new drive this week. I used Weakness.com, who I'd ordered an upgrade from in the past. They make it easy to add space or switch out your TiVo drive. Being a computer guy, I should be able to do it easily, and I've learned a few things.

One is that the firmware is onboard, not on the drive. When I put the new drive in, the OS noted on screen that it was formatting the new drive. So I wonder if a plain new SATA drive would work? A lot of places say not, but I wonder. I guess there could be a partition on the drive that has Linux, but I didn't want to mess with it and find out. It's a tool that works for me, so I'm happy to just buy a new drive. I bought a larger drive, a 750GB one fro $200. That compares with $70 from NewEgg for a very similar drive. Seems like a lot for someone to install stuff on there, but it's time I don't have, and a skill I don't need to develop.

It took a couple days for my drive to arrive, and Thur I decided to fix things, just in time for Thur night TV. I disconnected my TiVo, let it sit for about 20 minutes for capacitors to discharge, and then took everything downstairs.

The first thing I did was unpack the stuff from Weaknees and read the instructions. It was a simple drive replacement, though there was an addendum that my TiVo would need an adapter for the SATA drive I've gotten to get it back to IDE. OK, I thought and put the adapter (above on the drive). This turned out to be a mistake, so don't do this if you have a newer series 3 TiVo.

The TiVo case is held on with TORX screws, which are annoying. They don't easily come out and I cursed the engineers that designed this more than a few times as I tried to use the included TORX wrenches. They kept slipping, so I went out to my shop and found my own TORX screwdrivers. I removed 4 of the 5 (why 5?) screws, but the last one was stripped out from the DirecTV factory. The TORX edges are just too small. Fortunately I had another idea; back to the shop.

 

Yep, vice grips. The pulled the screw out and I threw that one away so I wouldn't put it back in. No point, and I'm not shipping the unit around, so I actually didn't put any screws in. Once I had the case off, I could see the insides.

I'm pointing to the hard drive here, a 5.25" SATA drive. That's why I didn't need the adapter. My motherboard has SATA built in. There isn't much else to see as most things are built into the motherboard, not like a normal PC. I went to unscrew the drive, and there was one screw visible on the motherboard.

I got that one out, but then couldn't get the drive loose. Nothing below, so as I suspected, they were in front. I had to pull the front down, which is held on with about 10 tabs. It was a challenge getting them all loose and open without breaking anything, but I managed.

I unscrewed the drive, replaced it in the cage with the new one, and screwed everything back, except the case screws. I thought everything was tight, but I needed to bring it upstairs and test it. I plugged it in, and turned it on, seeing the POST messages, including a "formatting storage device" message, and about 15 minutes it was back on.

All our recorded content was gone, of course, and none of our programs were set up, so perhaps there is a separate Linux partition. In any case, it's working, no more stuttering, and I've slowly been setting things back up to record. It's worked great the last couple days and I'm happy with my efforts.

Metalworking

This morning was the fall merit badge college for Delaney's troop.I woke him up at 6:15, our normal time for school, but he was tired and complaining a bit. He kept asking why it was so early, and why it was all day. I told him we'd go until 4 or 5, and he said that it seemed too long. His school isn't that long, according to him, so I had to try and keep him motivated.

We arrived a touch late, and they had already started the safety briefing. There's quite a few things for each merit badge, but one of the Dads has set up this class to get the entire badge complete in a day. However first it's about an hour of safety talking about how to be safe, possible issues, and what they need to watch out for.

 

I had a bit of shop envy, with a huge two story garage that one dad had in his back yard. He does a lot of car work and it's more than I need, but it's a nice setup for him. The boys liked it as well, and after passing their safety test and getting some paperwork done, we headed downstairs.

There were two projects that they boys could build. The first was a Dutch Oven lid holder and the other was a trivet. Both were being built out of old horseshoes and scrap metal. Here Delaney's measuring out some metal rod that he'll use for this project. He had to get it ready to go and then bend it.

I worked the bending machine, helping keep boys safe. There were 4 dads there, each assigned an area to help boys keep safe and use the equipment properly. The bending machine it pretty simple, and it works slow, but it's very unforgiving if you don't pay attention. It can bend 1" steel, so you want to be sure fingers are out of the way.

Delaney also got to use a torch, heating up metal to bend it that way. All the boys thought that was pretty cool. They also used a plasma cutter and welded stuff together. Here they are waiting for the welder. Sheets were hung to prevent people from looking at the sparks, and also to prevent camera guys from taking pictures and burning out lenses.

At the end, Delaney had built a lid holder. It was made by bending metal rod and then welding nuts on it to create a two handled lifter that grabs a heavy iron lid. It's much safer and better than most of the lifters I've seen at stores.

I guess we need to buy a Dutch Oven now and do some cooking. The Scouts use them a lot, and I'd like to do some cooking with them as well. We finished around 3:30, and Delaney didn't want to leave. He was having fun with other boys playing foosball and hanging out. So much for a long day. I managed to get him out of there by 4:30.

I also got to try welding. I've always been nervous about it, and thought there was some great mystery. There really isn't, and while it's good to have good equipment, it's not hard. Burt, the dad whose shop we were in showed me how to do it in a couple minutes. I had cleaned up some horseshoes, and but a few in half to make coat hangers. He showed me how to weld one on and then left me alone to finish the other three. It wasn't hard, though I didn't have great welds at the end.

However my chest is tight and I think it's from being in the closed shop most of the day with the burning fumes everywhere. Definitely we could have used more ventilation, but it was a cold day, so we couldn't get that much.

It was a fun day, and I think one of the more enjoyable ones that Delaney has had as a scout.

Hunkered Down

Tia wanted to get out of the house today, so she asked this morning if we could all go out and see a movie. So I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk and she did. After we worked most of the day, we decided to head out around 2:30 for a short walk to the mailbox and back.

That didn't work out well. As soon as I tried to help her get shoes on, her ankle was too swollen to get them on. We did manage to get her cowboy boots on and we headed out for a short one. We got to the gate, half of what we'd planned and decided to stop. We were moving slow, and a bunch of trash had gotten blown around, so we walked around picking things up before heading back to get the car and pick up kids.

We walked around in light jackets and while it was windy, it wasn't that cold. This was 3:00.

At 4:30 we went out to the barn to get horses ready for the night. It was getting colder quicker, and by 5:00 when we had the inside of the barn clean and walked out, it was snowing with a light layer of flakes all over the yard. It was cold and felt like a blizzard was coming.

After feeding the horses, we decided to take it easy and I ran to town to get us some food before we hunkered down. However it wasn't snowing when I got to town. In fact, it barely felt like it had snowed when I came back and it looks like the storm didn't materialize. It might still come tomorrow, but we should be OK for now.

At least I hope so. I need to go 20mi E tomorrow morning for a Scout merit badge college.

Summit Passes Set

At least for the kids and I. They gave me a hard time about doing Tia's, even though they'll do it online, they want her there at the store. Crazy.

So I got 4 passes for me and the kids, and hopefully we can go Sunday. Looking forward to getting back on the slopes. If I can get some work done tonight, I'll head up tomorrow as well.

Hay Delivery

Tia was on the phone when the hay guy arrived today. So I went out to manage the delivery after getting instructions from Tia on where she wanted it. She switched to big bales this year for some hay, and these bales are about 3ft x 3 ft square by about 6 or 7 ft long. The guy drove up with a dump flatbed truck, 6 bales on it, and drove around to the far side of the barn.

I got him lined up in the back doors and he started to tilt the bed. The plan was for them to slide into the barn. I asked him if they were off could we move them. He said, "you and me?"

I said yes and he laughed.

I tried to move one with no luck. They're almost 1,000lbs apiece and while they will slide on the concrete, they don't slide great.

No More Stinky Carpet

I dropped off trash as I took Kendall to school today and put the last of the old gray carpet on top of the cans. Kendall and I had a few minutes talking about our memories of that old gray carpet and how we're glad it's gone. That's the last of it from our house, where it used to cover almost every room.

Or so I thought.

Kendall reminded me she has a few scraps in her room that she kept. Fortunately those weren't from the bathrooms :)

The Journey Continues

I tested for my brown belt last night, getting through it, but it was a struggle. For the first time at this school, I think I really worked to earn a belt in a test. Most of the other “tests” I’ve had were just classes where I knew I’d be testing and tried to focus hard, but I didn’t really have to perform alone.

This time I got pulled up in front of class alone. A few others had done that for their red belt, and over time, for their blue and purple belts. When I got through those ranks, we weren’t tested hard. A few times we did some forms in a group, but no real “test” in front of the class. In fact, it’s been a decade and a half since I had to work something in front of a group and be graded.

And I was nervous. Not a lot, but a little. Lots of people in the class look up to me because outside of our teacher, I have the most experience. So I was a little worried about making mistakes, and I was a little worried my body would fail me. Sore right ankle, wrapped in a brace, which slips on the mats at times. There are times I wish I was back on a wood floor. A sore knee, and even a sore ankle. on the other side, and I was really worried I’d push off and something would slip, buckle, or collapse. And I was beat. Up too late Tues night and up early Wed.

We had a hard class, lots of wide stances at the start, which I think was to stress me, and have the class push me. It worked, as the energy was high, and we jammed. Then forms, which was nice since I’ve been out of class for 2 weeks and away from forms for 3. I practiced a few times Tues am, but not much. Then self defense, which I appreciated. Going through all 4 of the techniques we work was good since it’s been a few months since I’ve done any of them.

Finally, with 5 minutes, left, it was my time. The format has changed a little with people, but I knew our shihan expected me to be quick. No “re-doing” forms a few times. I’ve seen some people do them 3 or 4 times, especially when there’s a group.

Green form – blazing through, hard slaps on the elbow, lots of energy, but I felt a little tight at times. I was gripping, and it was a blur, so I’m not sure if I actually had shoulders tensed.

Blue Form – Nice pauses on the punches, I thought I set a good example. Moving on automatic through it that I was surprised when I got to the last couple moves. I did struggle with balance on the block/kicks.

Red Form – This is the one I like, kickboxing form. I had a hard time voicing the words, and did it less and less as I went along. I had an extra skip at one point, and I think my kicks weren’t crisp, but I was beat by the end.

Brown Form – I made a mistake here. There’s a block/punch combination, and I’m very upright and straight, not rotating the body and getting the punch out there. Shihan called me on it and I had to do it twice. The first time things felt good, but I had a little balance issue on the elbows. The second time I made corrections, thought I balanced well on all the kicks and movement and flew through it. I was so focused on the area in front of my, imagining someone that I was surprised when I looked back to see the front of the school. At the end of both forms, following the count, I was out of breath. It was “4", “4”, “5”, “5”, “6” (pause) “6” as I caught my breath.

Self defense was last, and I didn’t get Corey. He’s about my weight, but with 3 or 4” on me and he’s good to throw. Instead I had the senior male student and got to throw him around. I thought that things went well and I threw out the Ki-yai at the end, loudly, which isn’t something we typically do in class. Kids especially will half-ass it, so I think I provided a good example.

I got some good applause and that felt good, but I was glad to sit down. I was exhausted and this morning my body felt like someone had used it for a punching bag. Lots of sore muscles from the exertion, which I haven’t done in two weeks. Lots of running, but the punch, kick, start, stop hasn’t been something I’ve been doing, so the muscles are out of shape.

Another step in the journey, #8. Next step, black belt candidate.

No Cast

We went to the orthopedic surgeon today, thinking they'd cast Tia's arm. The ER doctor had mentioned that he wanted to give it 3-4 days for the swelling to go down, so we had an appointment today. We got there, and after waiting an hour, which was silly, the surgeon said he needed more x-rays. Fortunately they have a machine in the suite, so it was quick.

At first he was concerned about a dislocation near the end of the bone, which would have been surgery. We sweated that out briefly before he came back to say that it didn't look like a surgical case. When Tia then said her elbow hurt, he sent her back for x-rays up there to check and see if there was a fracture up higher. There wasn't, which was also good.

However it's a good spiral fracture that extends 3 or 4" along the bone. No enough to plate, and it should heal being immobilized, but it will likely be a 6 week time frame. When he looked at the arm, it still was swollen enough that he decided not to cast it today. He cut the underlying cotton wrapping, but left the splint on and then re-wrapped the ace bandage. Monday she goes back for a full arm cast.

He told he that he needed to immobilize it, preventing movement, bending, twisting, etc. of the arm. With a trip scheduled for next week, it will be interesting to see how the cast looks on Monday.

Chicago

Not the city, but rather our new kitten. This was the one I rescued from the tree a couple days ago, and to keep her safe, we put her in the tack room. Water, food, litter box, we left her in there to get acclimated a little to the barn, and partially because we weren't sure what else to do.

Kendall was thrilled to have her, and has been going out there before and after school. She'll go to bed early, and gets herself up and dressed so she can visit the car before school. It's kind of amazing. She's excited, and she'd really grown up a bit with the kitten around. She will run out to the barn alone, open and close the big doors, and then the tack room door.

The first day we went out there the kitten wouldn't come out. We put out food and water, and even took some string to try and get her to play, but Chicago wouldn't come out. Apparently last night my Kris got her out, so this morning Kendall was extra excited to go out there after I came back from dropping off Delaney.

We went out, and while I threw hay, Kendall was inside. When I got in the tack room, Chicago was next to Kendall, brushing her whiskers on Kendall's hand. She backed under the saddle holder when I came in, but then came back out in a minute and let Kendall pet her. She's definitely nervous, but she came to see me after a few minutes.

That's pretty cool, and she's adjusting well. Not sure how to get her to live in the barn and not leave, but we'll figure something out. She's also athletic. Kendall said she was up on the shelf when she came in, which is about 6-7 ft off the floor. Definitely the stalls won't hold her in.

Running Around

I missed karate last night since I wasn't sure if Kyle was going to be able to pick up Kendall. He's without a phone right now, so I couldn't check. My plan was then to go this morning, so after dropping off kids, dropping hay, and working a bit, I headed down to town.

Trying to get back in the routine, I did my 1.3 mi run first, and then went into class with the ladies. A small class, 6 of us, and surprisingly, I was winded. I tried not to push too hard on the run, but either I've lost something in 2 weeks, or I did because I was winded during the warm up.

By the end I felt pretty good, and then worked on a few forms alone since I have a test tomorrow night for my brown belt. Hopefully I'll do a better job for that one.

Cat Rescue

Kendall came home after spending the night with her aunt and found me upstairs. I guess she'd walked around outside first and then came inside. She told me one of the barn cats had been killed by the dogs. She wanted me to help bury it, so I said I'd come out.

When I got outside, she and the boys had found the other cat up in our tree. It was up high, about 15 ft up, and out on a small limb. I sat there for about 5 minutes trying to figure out what to do and then decided to try something.

I went and grabbed the extendible stepladder and put it in the truck. I also grabbed the old guinea pig cage, and then drove over. Parking under the tree, I extended the ladder, setting it in the back of the truck to give me some height. I was a little worried since the limbs were in the way, but I managed to get it stable without swaying. Pulling on some gloves, I climbed up with the bottom of the cage, a 2ft sq piece of plastic. The cat was relatively friendly, no hissing or fur up. It meowed a little, but it was definitely scared. I managed to get it's back legs into the cage, but it did not want to let go.

It's quite a balancing act, 15 ft in the air, trying to hold this large piece of plastic while simultaneously trying to loosen the grip of this kitten on the branch. Eventually I managed to get him off and into the cage. I sat up there for a couple minutes, just petting him. Both of us on a ladder, on a truck, in the air.

I slowly came down and then gave the cat to Kendall to hold. She was thrilled with that and we loaded her in the truck and moved the cat to the tack room. Not sure if that's the best place, but it's secure and I moved the food, water, and litter box in there.

A big relief for my daughter, though she handled the death of "sweetie" well. Chicago lives to see another day.

Salish Lodge

We had planned a Red Gate retreat for the last couple days of the week. My group at Red Gate, the publishing group, has 8 people in it, and we rarely get together. Two of us live in the US, so while we talk weekly, we don't see each other often. After the PASS Summit, we planned to spend Fri and Sat morning talking about plans for the next year.

I had thought we'd stay in the city, but a couple people and my boss wanted to get away, so we booked a night at the Salish Lodge, E of Seattle. It's near the town of Snoquamie and built on a hill overlooking a waterfall. It's actually quite picture-esque, but as you might have guessed, it rained most of the time we were there.

It's a little fancy, and isolated. After being dropped off by our van, we spent all day in a meeting with only a short break to walk out to an observation center and actually see the falls. I have a few pictures, and it does look quite nice.

The lodge is undergoing renovation, so some things weren't working. Bad timing for us, and various people had issues with their rooms. One person couldn't get their door open and had to wait an hour for maintenance to fix that. Someone else had an old room that wasn't very pleasant for them.

I actually had a nice renovated room. A huge jetted tub that actually had sliding doors that opened to the room, allowing you to have an open airy feel, or look out the floor to ceiling doors at the river. However things weren't perfect. The cold water for my sink didn't work, and neither did my iHome iPod alarm clock.

It was too fancy for me, with dinner not being overly enjoyable. It wasn't bad, but just not what I'd prefer, with a lot of french, artistic influences. The menu was limited, and the majority of things weren't what I'd choose. There was a tenderloin and a short rib item, plus a mint chicken. The rest of the dishes were seafood, duck, things I don't really like. One of the other guys is a much plainer eater than I, and we were rolling our eyes together.

As a sample, our opener, was a small plate. It had on it 3 slices of radish, a little oil, greens, and a few spices. That was it. I then had a salad is mixed greens, a few drabs of a balsamic dressing, and some nuts and some baby fruit.

We had a sorbet course that was a passionfruit tea, dried out, then crystallized, and frozen. It was pretty good and my steak was nice. Surprisingly I felt fairly full, although I think having a few cocktails helped. It was a silly dinner for me, my portion costing about $120 with wine. Not crazy, although the prices looked crazy at first. However it just was stiff, it wasn't exciting, and it wasn't relaxing. I think that's the problem with this super-fancy dinner.

I skipped dessert, nothing looking good, and since we'd been there for over 2 hours, I just wanted to sleep. No after dinner cocktails. That was another annoying thing, the extremely slow pace of service. It's deliberate, but not my thing. I would have preferred a quicker dinner, and then a drink afterwards.

It was a good retreat, and a beautiful place, though it rained all the time. I skipped my morning run with it cold and rainy outside. I didn't need to slip, or get sick, from the weather. I wasn't prepped for an outdoor run, and so I planned on running at home. I got to do that, but it was late after Tia's accident. So I had an 8:30 at night run.

The Welcome Home

So I had an uneventful flight, fairly routine, a nice stretch with an exit row and no one in the middle seat. I arrive, called my wife and got her voice mail. I grabbed my bag, packed up, and headed home. I ended up rolling down E-470, and got off at Smokey Hill Road when my cell phone rang. It was Tia and I got this:

"Hi honey, welcome home, I broke my arm."

Fortunately I'm laid back, and I didn't panic. From her tone I knew it wasn't horrible, but found out she was down at the Parker hospital with my sister-in-law. My brother-in-law-to-be was at our house with the kids, so they were covered. So I took my first right and headed down to the hospital. I arrived to fine my wife laying in bed, her arm cradled on a pillow and slightly drugged up.

She was in good spirits, relatively, and doing OK. Apparently it was a spiral fracture, simple (no broken skin), and while it's not good, it didn't need an operation. Or it doesn't now. If my wife can take care of it, she will be fine. If not, she could turn it into an operable item.

After a long wait, we got it wrapped up with a fiberglass U-brace that keeps it stable. They didn't cast it because they want to be sure it won't swell up. So she has an ortho appointment on Tuesday or Wednesday to get it casted. In the meantime, she got home, she's in pain, but manageable. After falling asleep, she got up this morning and we managed to get her showered.

So we'll see what happens this week, but for now I've canceled my trip to Las Vegas and SQL Connections. Watching Tia get things done, or try, I realized that I can't leave her here. Between horses, Kahli, and kids, I'm not sure she's ready. Especially without a cast on her arm.

New Disk Drive

I was watching some TV last night while Tia rested and it was stuttering and skipping a bit. At first I thought that it was a bad recording, maybe wind on the satellite dish, but then Tia woke up and told me that it had been happening all week.

So I headed to Weaknees.com. I bought some stuff from them years ago, and they seemed to be a great third party TiVo source. Their troubleshooter said the most likely cause was a failing hard drive. I agreed and thought about ordering one. They have a whole series of DirecTV HD replacement drive packages, so I skipped through them and decided on a 750GB drive for $200. It will double our capacity for recording, which is good, since I'm regularly clearing off stuff during football season.

So it should be here Tue or Wed, and hopefully our device will last until then.

Last Day

And I am glad. It's been a long week, busy, running from event to event, or conversation to conversation, making it hard to find time to blog. It's been fun in Seattle, meeting so many people and catching up with others. But it's also exhausting.

The one good thing is that I've been able to get up each morning for a run on the top of the Sheraton in Downtown Seattle. They have a 35th floor, 2 story exercise center on top of the hotel. The down side is I haven't slept well, waking up constantly.

Almost done, tomorrow and Saturday I have two days of meetings and them home to Denver. Looking forward to that.

Day 1

It's been a long day, and it's not over. I've still got dinner, and a couple more events to go to and see people. Up at 6:15 to run, and all day at the conference, I am beat.

I enjoy seeing friends, shaking hands, and catching up with a few people. I've had a dozen 5 minute conversations today with people and could have had a couple dozen more, easily.

So polishing off an editorial and looking forward to a quieter day tomorrow, with less scheduled events and more time to just meet people.

Refreshed

The run is complete. I struggled to get up a little, and then I struggled to run today. My legs were tired, and for the first time, 2 minutes in, I thought about bailing and trying to later. They were just tired, and the 6.2mph pace wasn't working for me.

But I slowed a little, and kept going, and now feel much better after an 18 minute run.

Beat

A great party for SQLServerCentral tonight, but I am beat. Up at 5:15am to run, and then fly to Seattle, party prep, and talking to people for hours.

Ready for bed.

Finding an Hour

I was thinking that it was getting late. I went to run some errands, bank, groceries, and looking at the clock in the car, I thought it was 5:30. So I got home thinking that I needed to start cooking food and get packed.

But it wasn't.

It was 4:30, so I had time to do other things after putting groceries away. Like watch a little football.

Video Man

Tia asked if I'd do a little video work of the horses she's training, so I'm shooting some for her today. It's boring work, even if I know what she's doing or I'm watching for things. Definitely not a career choice I'd want to make.

I did manage to fix the manure spreader while I was waiting for her to tack up. The tow bar had some loose from it's guide, so I unbolted it, aligned it, and bolted it back down.

Daylight Savings

I'm not sure if I like the fall change or not. It's nice to have an extra hour today, and it will make getting up early tomorrow easier, but losing the sun is hard.