Our World

Category: Chris’s Blog

  • Day 033 of 2026

    Day 033 of 2026

    And today is the first day of the AHR 2026 conference. Started off my day with a quick breakfast at the hotel, while on the phone with a technician who had some concerns he wished to share, he was right on a few and I will have to verify a few other things.

    Then took my three mile walk to the Las Vegas Monorail to ride over to the convention center. Of course you almost have to walk through the MGM to get to the Monorail. Everything revolves around gambling here.

    First session was about Duct Leakage and Sealing. It was not of a dry presentation but gave a nice overview of some code changes and updates. Common sense stuff mainly. But good overall.

    They sort of lost me when they got into the engineering math with examples.

    I have this theory that those that mixed letters and numbers together and expect it mean something may have been smoking some good stuff.

    Next session is Minimizing and Troubleshooting Fan System Effect.

    The fan course was really good. Talked about ductwork configurations that support good airflow on commercial fans. Did not cover any residential fans, but the principles are the same just at a smaller scale.

    I took a break and went down to the exhibit hall. What a disaster. You go to one of these and you have been to them all. I tried to meet up with a fre colleagues from work and was never able to find them. Gave up.

    I went over to the main exhibit hall and stopped by the HVAC Excellence booth. Saw a few people I wanted to see and took a look at a new training product they are rolling out. Not sure if we may be able to use it at Alpine Intel, but it does have potential.

    And it was time for my next session on Bacnet.

    The presenter was very good, and unlike some of the others was very comfortable talking to a very large group. Really good presentation.

    Bacnet is a protocol that is used for building control systems, it’s universal and open. That means that it is available for all.

    Finished with that presentation and ducked into another Bacnet related presentation that was a round table discussion of Bacnet working with the Linux Foundation to adopt some open source compatability and standards. I have to dig some more into this when I have time…… if I have time.

    Next up is a session on fan efficiency and building codes. This ended up being another multi-presenter presentation, wasn’t all that great, basically a few people complaining about building codes.

    And, after that disaster I decided to call it a day. Monorail back to the MGM Grand and then walked the 3.6 miles back to the hotel. I think I am going to use Lyft tomorrow, way too much walking and I really do not want to get sick or hurt myself.

    Anyways, I have some computer work still to do, but I think I am going to call it a wrap for today. See ya tomorrow for day 2.

    




    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
  • 
		
		
    
			
			
    Day 032 of 2026
    
			
    

    Welcome to Las Vegas!!! And Welcome To February!
    




    




    Got up this morning, had breakfast, and then decided to head out for the short walk to the Las Vegas Convention Center. According to Google Maps it was a 4.2 mile walk form my hotel. I know it seems long, but I do that walk on a daily basis for my workouts. Anyways, Google Maps lies. 
    






    It was a little over 6 miles to the convention center.  Passed some great scenery, but still it was long.
    




    

    




    




    




    




    




    

    




    Went in, wandered around a bit, picked up my show information and then decided to take the Las Vegas Monorail back towards the hotel to see if I could eliminate part of the walk.
    




    




    Well, that helped but still the 2 miles that Google Maps gave me from the end of the monorail at the MGM Grand to the hotel, was a little off and ended up just over 3 miles. I am going to have to figure out transport for the show tomorrow. At least I did find a convenience store to get some water, much cheaper than what I could find at the hotel.
    




    

    




    

    




    It may be Lyft to the monorail station as I am not sure I want to do the 3 mile walk in the AM, or maybe I will to get my steps in.
    




    Walking back to the hotel past the airport I noticed a contrail that was casting an interesting shadow near the end of it. It was just in the right place to act like a cloud and cast a shadow. Let’s let the conspiracy theorists talk about this little shadow creating weather changes and preventing rain.
    




    

    

    

    




    




    

    

    

    




    Anyways I am done exploring for the day. I was able to find a Whole Foods within walking distance of the hotel, picked up some food for the rest of my trip. This may not be a good place for someone to be drunk from a night out partying. Look what I found along the sidewalk. 
    




    

    




    




    

    




    Tomorrow is the start of the conference. 
    






    Anyways, got to see some of Vegas in the daylight. Headed back to the hotel and had to wade through the cloud of cigarette smoke in the hallway near my room. This is ridiculous. I actually went down the the front desk to see if accidentally I was assigned to a smoking room. Nope, was not. It’s gotten batter, it seems as though someone had smoked up a storm in their room last night and they were tying to clean it. 
    




    I think I am close to 25K steps for the day. I think this is a wrap.
    




    Day 032 of 2026
    220 Hidden Well Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89119, USA
      
     
     
    Get directions
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Day 031 of 2026
    
			
    

    I got to sleep in today!!!! Gifts of all gifts. My alarm went off at 6:30am this morning but I turned it off and rolled over to go back to sleep. Thankfully I was able to sleep after I found the breaker panel for my room and turned off the PTAC (Air Conditioning/Heater) as it was stuck in heat mode and none of the controls would shut it off. So…. I got a night of sleep. I may have to remember that idea in the future, most of these are noisier than hell. This is a hotel to remember not to stay at again. The lack of care extends from the rooms all the way through to the common areas. There is no excuse for the pool area to be left like this overnight.
    




    

    




    




    

    




    Went down and had some fried eggs and turkey sausage for breakfast, and then decided to go do another 45-50 minutes at a fast walk on the treadmill. Once again my heart rate dropped drastically at about the 25-30 minute point. I don’t get what’s going on. In today’s and yesterdays cases I was able to feel it. It almost felt like I was going into afib again but it didn’t go that far. I did my 50 minutes, though slower than I would have liked, and immediately say down and took and ECG both with my watch and with my other ECG reader. On the watch nothing strange showed up, on the ECG reader that is 6 lead I did have a little bit of an irregular heart rate about 50% through the reading That one I am sending to my cardiologist. 
    




    




    I was at the airport a little over 3 hours early, that’s fine, I would rather be early than late. Also, I was able to sit down and read for a bit, I had some Chicken Caesar Salad for lunch, and attempted to find some de-caff coffee or tea. Yeh, that doesn’t appear possible. How is it possible that no one in the airport has decaf anything? Goes along with my feelings on Saint Louis. 
    




    Finally on my flight, headed to Denver….. Not home…. believe it or not I am now passing through to my next destination. Denver is a hub and it was either come here from Saint Louis or go to Washington, DC and then onto my next destination. I am still getting used to being at a hub airport in the middle of the country. I only wish that I could drop one piece of my luggage off along the way, but that is not happening. 
    




    




    Nice flight to Vegas, and a pretty easy time getting through the airport. The hotel shuttle took forever to show up, but other than that I made it to my hotel and room at a reasonable hour. 
    




    




    You can tell you are in Vegas as you step off the plane and are hit in the face with the gaming machines.
    




    

    




    

    




    Anyways, I am here, safely, and out of the city I really don’t like, and back to civilization (sort of). Now for 4 days of fun and excitement at the AHR Expo. Talk to you tomorrow.
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
  • 
		
		
    
			
			
    Day 030 of 2026
    
			
    

    And it is another day in the books. I really did not sleep well last night. Typical first night in a hotel. The time zones are messing with me, and I am not sleeping well. I talked with my doctor today and he wants me to cut back on the caffeine I drink during the day, he said “cut out” but I am going to translate that to “Cut Back” as “Cut Out” will make me a very unpopular person with  all the people I work with.
    




    I woke up around 5:30am Central Time, which is an inhumane 4:30am Mountain Time and just could not fall asleep. So, I made myself a cup of coffee, oops, which was a challenge because my hotel room has a Kureg machine and all the coffee packets in the room are not Kureg. Go Hilton! You just keep making it harder and harder to maintain brand loyalty. 
    




    




    Anyways, I digress, what else to do with my early morning other than to go spend an hour on the treadmill downstairs in the fitness center. Did pretty well, but something odd happened during the middle of my workout. My heart rate suddenly dropped form about 130 bpm to about 80 bpm, and it was a fast drop while I was still working out. I verified my watch vs the heart rate monitor on the machine and it read the same thing. I got my hour in and a little over 4 miles, it’s not an all time record but it was important for me to get some workout in.
    




    

    




    




    

    




    And then after answering a bunch of questions from the processors I left the hotel to go to my first appointment. Nice property with a non-functioning Home Automation System. I just don’t understand people paying large sums of money for a Control 4 home automation when I can do just about the same functionality with my Samsung Smart Things hub and a bunch of z-wave switches. This one systems main components cost over 35K and that does not even include all of the switches and other controlled devices around the house. 
    




    We have a Home Automation System at our house as well. Most of our light switches and outlets are controllable. I have a nice mix of Z-Wave, Ziggbee, and Internet of Things devices. All are controlled by my Smart Things controller. I think my total investment is close to $1000.00 overall, plus the time it takes to do the programming. I plan on adding audio in the near future, but still trying to figure out how I want to approach that.
    




    
Aeotec GP-AEOHUBV3US Smart Home Hub for SmartThings (Supports Z-Wave, Zigbee & more)

    




    My next appointment was a claim stemming from some flooding, which overwhelmed a sump pump and filled a basement. As the water rose it submerged a well pump, all the wiring under the first floor, the furnace/air conditioning, and still had standing water in the air conditioning coil. The appointment didn’t take long, per normal my two hour round trip drive took longer than my time on-site. 
    




    




    Got back to the hotel, finished the 16 processor requests, and worked on about 4 technician support requests, and by that time it was dinner time. I noticed there was a Galleria mall across the street from the hotel. I figured that they would have to have a food court. I had to wade through snowbanks to get there. For some reason Saint Louis does not move snow out of the streets and off sidewalks, they just push into the left and right lanes and leave it. No sidewalk clearing, crosswalks, and push buttons for the traffic walk lights are all hard to get to. Makes it very impossible for pedestrians.
    




    




    Had Panda Express and it was pretty good and then I did a walk through the mall and back to the hotel. I did something I have been meaning to do for a while, I started figuring out a resistance band workout. I really need to start building some muscle as everyone says it will help me loose some fat. I do not even think about the being “Mr. Muscle” but I do want to work on building a little bit more lean muscle. I am hoping the resistance band workouts can help me with that. I am able to take the resistance bands with me and it does not require time in the gym. Hotel gyms are a frequent problem. Surprisingly this hotel has a pretty nice one, but most do not.
    




    And I am now sitting here sipping some de-caffinated tea and wiring my journal for the day. Going to read for a while and then hopefully fall asleep.
    




    Talk with you tomorrow. 
    




    Day 030 of 2026
    8040 Clayton Rd, Richmond Heights, MO 63117, USA
      
     
     
    Get directions
    




    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Day 029 of 2026
    
			
    Day 029 of 2026
    
			
    

    Started off the day working and trying to pack for today’s travels. I had both my office assistants for a while today.
    




    Res and Climber 
    




    They didn’t help much. But, I did get caught up on a lot of pending tasks, got a number of pricing projects completed, and tested some app issues.
    




    Then it was time to head out for my train, plane, and automobile adventures. Jesse took me up to the trains station to catch the A-Line to the airport. From the house it takes me less than an hour to drop bags and get through security. Love this airport, I think it is one of the easiest airports I fly in and out of.  One bag of tools, one bag of clothing, and the backpack for all of my technology and medications. 
    




    




    Got through the security mess and then did my usual walk over the skybridge to the A terminal, they always have neat displays along the way where the used to have the old security checkpoint. Today was no different and it was a display of old style ice cream carts. All hand painted by local vendors/artists. 
    




    

    




    




    




    




    




    




    




    

    




    My fitness for the day on airport days is to walk the total walk-able public areas of all 3 terminals. It comes to about 4.5 miles of concourse when I am done. Made my steps, did not make my heart rate levels because I was unable to get the pace I needed due to all the people who have no idea how to get out of my way! All good, I will hit up the hotel gym over the next few days to make up for it. 
    




    Oh, word for the wise…. don’t leave your bags unattended at Denver International, they pick it up, paint it, and make it part of their display…..
    




    




    In case anyone was wondering today’s destination is Saint Louis, Missouri. I have two appointments there tomorrow and then I move onto my next stop, more on that in a few days. I am typing this at 34,000 Ft someplace near Kansas City, KS/MO and I try very hard to think of one appointment at a time.  At least today is a nice smooth ride (so far).
    




    Of course I forgot my iPhone, I usually don’t travel with it, everything is on my Samsung Galaxy Android phone, but occasionally I need to test bugs and reports of bugs in our Alpine Intel Diagnostic Wizard app on the iPhone. Since I was going to be gone a full week and we are going into a release cycle, I meant to grab my iPhone off my desk and bring with. Well….. I sort of figured this out after I was through security at the airport. Not much I could do about it at that point. I really need to find a way to test iOS apps on my Windows machine or on my Android. Crossing my fingers that I don’t end up with a major problem that needs my attention.
    




    Anyways, arrived at a totally dead Saint Louis, MO (STL) airport. I mean even security was closed and it wasn’t that late. Baggage came pretty quickly, and I was able to get out to the rental car shuttle. Got over to the car lot and picked my car, I love the Executive Aisle at National Car Rental, almost got to the exit booth and I looked down at the gas tank and yup, it was on Empty. A manager came out to the booth and I stayed warm in the booth while he went and filled the car. Finally got out of there.
    




    




    I decided to use the Homewood Suites on this trip, I have done the Double Tree here before and ended up with food poisoning from their restaurant that caused a 10 day hospital stay a few hears back, so not staying there again. Now, once again here is my pet peeve as a frequent traveler. I get to the hotel, the parking lot is not plowed and I finally find a space I can “slide” into. Make the trek up to the lobby and even though I have a digital key I stop by the front desk to get my free waters. OK, I am told the water is in my room. And, I need a parking pass (for 10.00 per night) that I have to put on my dashboard or get towed. So I trek back down to the car, leaving my luggage in the lobby by the desk, and put the piece of paper on the dashboard. For 10.00 per night I can’t help but wonder why they can’t plow the lot? 
    




    Get back up, go to my room. No water. What a shock. Go back down to the desk to get my water and got a bit of an attitude from the desk clerk. Also wanted to pick up some food from their little store. I used to be able to charge these purchases to my room. Nope, not anymore. You have to pay using a little kiosk off to the side. There are no more room charges, pay with your credit card. This is becoming more frequent, what is going on is they have franchised out the “shop” to an outside vendor. I am not sure what the incidentals deposit at the hotel is used for anymore. I am really starting to question my allegiance to the Hilton Chain. Sometimes I wonder if I would do better at some of the other chain properties. 
    




    Anyways, I am done of the night. I hope everyone has a good and peaceful overnight. See you tomorrow.
    




    Today's map timeline
    




    Day 029 of 2026
    8040 Clayton Rd, Richmond Heights, MO 63117, USA
      
     
     
    Get directions
    




    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Day 028 of 2026
    
			
    Day 028 of 2026
    
			
    

    Hey all! Busy day today, started off the day with a few cups of coffee and some breakfast egg/bacon/mushroom muffins. Then it was all out keeping caught up. Around 11:15 I had enough and decided to go out and take my lunch with a long jog/walk to get my steps in. I wasn’t feeling like swimming today, I have a tendon at the back of my left knee that is cramping and a little painful. It is in an area that gets a lot of strain when I swim breaststroke so I will take a few days out of the water (maybe).
    




    Anyways, today was about 5 miles and I think I did pretty decently, especially since I had to wait for traffic a few times along the way.
    






    I was able to see some neat scenery along the way, check this out.
    




    

    




    




    




    




    




    

    




    Once I was home, got right back on the phone with several of our technicians who needed support, and then spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with cause of loss determination requests (what went wrong and why?). These are both interesting and challenging at times. Also had to try to figure out how to fit in another potential rather important inspection. More on that maybe tomorrow. Scheduling is sometimes very difficult due to the number of people and different goals involved.
    




    Res would like to have a few words here:
    




    Me: Res, why you hanging out in the livingroom?
    Res: This bed is the warmest bed in the house.
    Me: It might be
    Res: I can’t figure out why
    Me: It’s sitting right on top of the heat vent.
    Res: Oh…. that’s why. Can you do this in the bedroom?
    Me: Nope! I like heat too.
    Res: Me share! Don’t tell The Thing about the warm bed.
    Me: Don’t worry she is only searching out the sunbeams you ignore.
    




    




    Anyways, this day is a wrap. Talk to you tomorrow.
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Day 027 of 2026
    
			
    Day 027 of 2026
    
			
    

    Another day in the books! Almost all the snow is gone and we got up over 50 degrees today here in Aurora, Colorado. Big temperature change from over the weekend and it looks like the rest of the week is going to be as warm.
    




    Started off the day with a meeting to discuss how we can handle testing a truckload of solar equipment (panels, inverters, and other components) that turned over in CA and spilled it’s load all over the road, in pieces. OK, I can handle that, I may have a trip coming up to California. Not sure yet.
    




    After doing a bunch of work this morning I took an early lunch so that I could hit up the Rec Center prior to an inspection I had early afternoon. The pool was way too crowded so I did a dry land workout. 35 minutes on the treadmill, 20 minutes on the indoor track and stairs. I am satisfied. I hate treadmills, but they do help me with maintaining a pace and building up endurance. The indoor track allows me a padded surface to walk on, and also I can take advantage of the steps down to the basketball courts, it’s about two flights of stairs each time I do them. 
    




    

    




    

    




    My afternoon appointment was at a fire investigators shop. A furnace caught on fire in the middle of a service call. Objective was to find the cause. The cause is not always the first thing that comes to mind. The original cause can be something different than the final cause. Can have two different results in terms of insurance payment. I can’t share too many details here due to privacy and rules I live by, but kids…. listen up! If you need to test a furnace, whatever you do, do not pull the high limit safety to prevent it from cycling on high limit during your testing. The best idea if you know a furnace is overheating is to remember there is only 1 thing that can cause a gas furnace to overheat: Lack of Airflow. Repeat that again, furnaces overheat due to lack of airflow. If you want to trace down the lack of airflow, turn the fan switch on the thermostat to “On” from “Auto” and find what is blocking air movement in the duct-work. Do not remove or bypass any high limit switch. Bad things can happen.
    




    Anyways, I finished up with that, got my findings submitted from the inspection location, stopped in a nearby parking lot to log in and assist a technician with a few problems. Finally got home and still had about an hour of work to do. Had to do my summary write-up for my manager on the inspection so that he can get the report written. And also needed to clean up any urgent tech support issues and tags.  Wrapped it up.
    




    Did our normal 4pm evening dog walk, about 1/2 a mile around the park. Res and Climber both expect it, actually demand, their walks and know what time it is. It was a decent walk but it did get a little chilly along the way and there were still some patches of ice. Came back, fed them, and had dinner.
    




    Our after dinner relaxation time had a brief interruption…… Res and Climber wish to take over my blog for a little while:
    




    




    Climber: Hey HUMAN! He woofed at me!
    Me: Was there a reason he woofed at you?
    Climber: Nope! All I was doing was getting my bed ready for my nap.
    Me: How were you getting your bed ready?
    Climber: I was scratching at it. Making it softer
    Me: And what happened?
    Climber: He woofed at me.
    Res: She Lies! Liar Liar Paw On Fire!
    Climber: Shut it Res!
    Me: Res…. does this sound like you are loosing? Be quiet!
    Me: Climber, when you were scratching did you see Res laying nearby?
    Climber: Nope when it woofed I didn’t see it!
    Me: Why?
    Climber: I don’t know
    Res: The put the bed on top of me and I couldn’t see anything! She buried me!
    Climber: I did not, it levitated on it’s own, you still Woofed at me!
    Res: OK, next time I don’t woof, you will loose an ear or a tail!
    Me: Nope, no vet bills!!!! Climber, back to your corner. Stop annoying Res.
    Res: Yeh, Leave me alone!
    Me: Res, stop annoying Climber.
    Me: Back to your corners.
    




    And that’s a wrap for today, see you tomorrow.
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
  • 
		
		
    
			
			
    Day 026 of 2026
    
			
    

    Nothing of too much interest today, sort of a boring day, well from a blog perspective. The dogs did not get a walk until later in the morning, wanted to give it a chance to warm up a little. The temperature swings over the last two days have been amazing. Freezing, thawing, re-freezing, thawing again, and today if got up into the 40’s.
    




    




    The dogs are so confused. 
    




    Spent the morning working, I was buried in the requests from the processing team today as well as our resolutions department to review quotes and other such fun things. This afternoon I wrapped that all up, stayed working later than normal so that I could clean out anything remaining in my queues. I also spent a bit of time this evening catching up on tech coaching/support tasks. My goal is to finally get caught up on initial contacts and then I can work on all my follow-ups. I got the new request down to one. Tomorrow or Wednesday I will start working on my follow-ups. I need to bounce a few things off of my manager first.
    




    I did make it to the pool today, later than I wanted to, but I did get a 30 minute swim in, did a mile. I am working on my distance, not overall, but distance I can swim at one time without stopping. That is extremely important from an endurance swim perspective. I am somewhat happy with my progress but it is not where I want it yet. I have been hitting 9:15 for 500 yards, which is OK, but I struggle to get past 500 yards, and I really need to be able to do 10 times that comfortably. 
    




    

    2026-01-26 Sets
    




    2026-01-26 Stats
    

    




     Anyways, that wraps up my day. Now sitting down and reading and updating this blog. You will note that I haven’t posted anything political, and have been avoiding recent events. I am doing that for two reasons, first I have wanted to keep this a pure journal of my life, and second I do have some concerns about putting much of anything in writing these days. I wish I didn’t feel that way because I have a lot to say. Not sure what I am going to do about that in the future.
    




    Have a good evening, we will chat tomorrow.
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Day 025 of 2026
    
			
    Day 025 of 2026
    
			
    

    OK, so I had opened my big mouth, I guess Florida is now participating in Winter 2026 – at least for a few days. It will all be gone by the end of the week. I am happy that I got Res’s and Climber’s morning walk in before the snow started to Fall. Hey Canada, your drunk weather is in my back yard, would you please come get it back?
    




    

    Current weather – snow
    




    Climber in her Sunbeam
    




    Res ignoring Climber
    

    




    Today was the day to take down Christmas and pack it away for next year. Jesse normally does the tree and it’s best if I stay out of the way, so after I brought the boxes up to the living room I went for an hour swim. I really wanted to get the full hour in because I needed to submit an hour swim to US Master’s Swimming for the first virtual competition event of 2026.  I also needed a competitive event to submit to to WellRight to get credit for 1 out of 4 athletic events (it’s a work fitness/health/mental health sponsored thing). 
    




    

    




    




    

    




    I didn’t do the best, I probably will be at the bottom of my age group, but this was important to me to at least get done. I plan on (hopefully) doing all 4 US Master’s events this year. There is a 5K and a 10K swim competition that requires a 50M pool that I may have to figure out how to get done as I am not sure we have a 50 meter pool anywhere near me, but that can be done anywhere between May 15th and September 15th. 
    




    




    




    Never mind, I digress, but I got home and helped Jesse with taking down the rest of Christmas and packing it all away down in the basement for next year. At least being out of Florida I am less concerned about mice getting into stuff as we were in the Florida house’s attic. It’s time to get the basement ready for Spring planting in a few months, though looking outside right now I am not thinking about Spring.
    




    View from Cameras at snow.
    




    I guess the kids (Res and Climber) are not getting their afternoon walks today. And of course that will mess with their dinner, greyhounds are creatures of habit and routine. Res has a tendency not to eat well if his routine is messed up. And…. his routine is messed up with this cold weather.
    




    Jesse has been slow cooking broccoli cheese soup today. Hopefully it’s almost ready, it’s soooooo good.
    




    Anyways, I think that’s a wrap for today. I am going to sit here and read for a bit, maybe go on Facebook for a bit. I also really need to figure out what to do about my Linkdin profile. My resume on there is tailored for a specific position I was trying for over 6 years ago. It does not represent over 40 years of working life. I had a deposition a week or so ago for an insurance case I was asked to be a witness for and I was disqualified as an expert in that base based on my Linkdin resume. I am wondering if the safest bet is to remove my resume from Linkdin. I keep an accurate copy of my resume here and I would rather people have a current resume than a really old one and one that has been shortened to fit the needs of a specific employer.
    




    Good Night and I will talk to you all tomorrow. 
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Day 024 of 2026
    
			
    Day 024 of 2026
    
			
    

    What a day! Started off here with Ms Gizmo (our cat) waking me up at 5:00am this morning. For some reason she started to do her squawking in the hallway outside our room. The dogs are non-reactive to her now, but she is still a pain in the ass. I relish what sleep I get. I did manage to doze off again until about 6:15am when Climber decided it was time to get up. The girl should have peed last night when she had the chance. But, she got sprayed with the spray bottle we keep upstairs, problem solved.
    




    I finally got up around 6:40 and let the beasts out. We had a light dusting of snow overnight, but it was cold!!! Like really cold.  No one wanted to stay out longer than they had to. No morning walk for them either.
    




    




    They were not very happy and because their schedule was sort of messed up they decided the indoor track (up the stairs, through the kitchen, into the living room, and back down to the family room…. and repeat) was the thing to do. Needless to say, the outcome was that the human (me) interfered and put an end to the racing.  Meet my jailbirds:
    




    Two dogs in their crate.
    




    Jesse and I took a leaf blowers outside and cleared the snow off of the walkways and the back lawn, hey, we have to do the lawn in order for the dogs to not get hurt paws when it melts a little and then re-freezes. 
    




    After a quick breakfast I wanted to go work out for an hour at the Rec Center. I wasn’t in the mood to swim, actually I have been cold for a few days and didn’t really want to get colder and then walk out into 20 degree weather. Anyways, I went and spent about an hour, hit the treadmills, I can’t stand treadmills, and then another 15 minutes or so on the indoor track, and then finally I spent a whole 5 minutes on the rowing machine. I wanted to hit 10-15 minutes on the rowing machine but that was not happening.
    




    

    Aurora Rec Center Lap Pool
    




    Rec Center Basketball Court
    




    Aurora Rec Center Lazy River and Hot Tub
    




    A look across to the fitness equipment
    

    




    I need to start doing some resistance and weight training, it’s something that the physical thereapist has been after me to do, and I have a plan, its just finding the time to do it without impacting other fitness I am trying to do. I also need to spend an hour in the pool one of these days. Maybe I will go do that tomorrow. The rest of the week doesn’t look that great.
    




    I was finally able to get Res and Climber out for a a walk around the park. They like their walks and when they miss them they become very unhappy. It made it up to about 23 degrees so with coats and extra care we got them out. 
    




    

    




    




    




    




    

    




    And after their walk it was nap time while Jesse went and explored CostCo. He’s brave, it was a Saturday afternoon before the Patriots loose to the Broncos 🙂  I do not understand how greyhounds ever get themselves untangled enough to get up from a nap fast. I would be falling all over the place.
    




    

    




    




    

    




    While they were sleeping I went downstairs and spent a little time on my Amateur Radio station. It is Winter Field Day (WFD) and it is almost impossible to make any “non-contest” contacts. I don’t participate in contests and think there should be some bands available for everyday activity. The contesters for the most part are pretty rude and will tell you off if you try to have a conversation that is not contest related.
    




    And as I wrap up the day we are relaxing, the dogs are snoozing for their after dinner, pre-snack nap. Yes, they sleep almost 16 hours a day and their trackers prove it. Sometime I will share a screen capture of that, they could compete in the Winter Olympics napping contest.
    




    I think I will wrap this up for today. See you all tomorrow – if you don’t freeze.