Category: Uncategorized

67 Days Until Event – 2500 Today

I chose to do an on-the-fly 2500M today. I had limited time, so started out with longer breaststroke and freestyle sets and ended up with shorter 50s of both. It was not a day that I would break any time records. I will try to fit in an 800m freestyle as a part of my tomorrow workout.

8/4/2026 Workout Summary

Metric	Value
Total Distance	2,500 m
Total Swim Time	42:17
Total Rest Time	8:19
Total Session Time	50:36
Workout Sets	15
Average Swim Pace	1:41.5 /100 m

Workout Structure

Set	Stroke	Distance	Time	Pace /100 m	Rest
1	Freestyle	100 m	1:23.7	1:23.7	0:21
2	Mixed (200 BR + 200 FR)	400 m	6:46.8	1:41.7	1:02
3	Breaststroke	100 m	1:48.6	1:48.6	0:26
4	Freestyle	200 m	3:17.2	1:38.6	0:21
5	Breaststroke	100 m	1:47.6	1:47.6	0:24
6	Mixed	300 m	5:14.7	1:44.9	0:32
7	Mixed	100 m	1:39.7	1:39.7	0:24
8	Mixed	200 m	3:21.2	1:40.6	0:28
9	Mixed (4×50)	200 m	3:19.3	1:39.6	0:57
10	Freestyle	100 m	1:33.8	1:33.8	0:18
11	Breaststroke	50 m	0:55.5	1:51.0	0:20
12	Freestyle	100 m	1:36.8	1:36.8	0:18
13	Breaststroke	150 m	2:39.2	1:46.1	1:06
14	Mixed (3×100)	300 m	5:12.7	1:44.2	1:12
15	Mixed (2×50)	100 m	1:40.6	1:40.6	—

Benchmark Table

Event	Current Best Training	Today’s Best Relevant Swim	2025 Bronze	2025 4th
1500 m Freestyle	25:46.0 (8/2)	—	25:04.75	25:06.88
800 m Freestyle	14:08.0 (8/2)	—	12:32.85	12:56.76
200 m Breaststroke	3:41.3 (8/3)	≈3:37.2 pace (from the 150 m in 2:39.2)	3:39.92	4:00.27
100 m Breaststroke	1:44.0 (7/26)	1:47.6	1:32.97	1:37.95

Gap to Medal Table

Event	Gap to Bronze	Gap to 4th
1500 m Freestyle	41.3 sec	39.1 sec
800 m Freestyle	1:35.2	1:11.2
200 m Breaststroke	Current best: 1.4 sec behind Bronze • 18.9 sec ahead of 4th
100 m Breaststroke	11.0 sec	6.1 sec

AI Evaluation

This wasn’t designed as a race-test day, but there are several encouraging points:

Your 100 m breaststroke repeats (1:48.6 and 1:47.6) were close to your best training speed despite being embedded in a larger interval workout.
The 150 m breaststroke in 2:39.2 corresponds to a pace of about 1:46.1/100 m. While it’s not directly comparable to a 200 m race, it’s consistent with the strong breaststroke performances you’ve shown over the past week.
Your freestyle remained controlled throughout the session, with late-workout 100 m repeats of 1:33.8 and 1:36.8, indicating good speed retention under fatigue.

Road to Huntsman

Your trend over the past several workouts continues to be strongest in the 200 m breaststroke:

7/19: 3:59.5
7/30: 3:45.6
8/3: 3:41.3 (best)
8/4: Maintained race-quality breaststroke pace during interval work rather than regressing.

The consistency of your breaststroke pace across consecutive workouts suggests that the improvement isn’t just a single exceptional swim—it’s becoming repeatable. That’s an encouraging sign as you continue building toward the Huntsman World Senior Games.

2026-08-04

Day 101 of 2026 – April 11th

I have been remiss in posting for the last two days, the bottom line is there was not much going on. Today, however, was a busy day. I didn’t get everything done I wanted to get done, but that’s OK, it was a Saturday. I started off the day with my normal get up, have coffee, let the dogs in and out, give them their snacks, and then wade through my personal email. do a quick check on work email – I always make sure nothing urgent.

When Jesse got up I too Res on his morning walk, today was a lone walk and we did about 3.25 miles. It was a good walk until Res noticed that I was starting to turn him back to the house, then he changed speed from bunny speed to snail speed. He likes being out and about and when I turn back to the house he notices.

When we got back home it was now Climber’s turn. I took her on a slightly longer walk because she walks a little faster than Res does and she needs her exercise, she needs to loose 9 pounds. We have cut her back on her food a bit. I am being a little stingy on her treats, and I am going to start figuring out how to start giving her more outside time during the weekdays. Anyways, her part of the walk was really good, except for something that I will describe after her walk gallery.

I love our Prairie Dogs, the are cute, they are funny, and even Res and Climber love to watch them. They are harmless. They build their colonies in empty fields, they do not build in peoples lawns, and they have family units. So, imaging my surprise and horror when I see some asshole in the field next to one of the churches up on Tower Boulevard in the middle of the Prairie dog colony.

What this idiot was doing was using a shovel to seal off one end of the tunnels and then he was sticking a long hose with a funnel into the other end of the tunnels and dumping something, I assume poison, down the hole and then sealing the colony into the holes. The way he was approaching it, he has done this before. As soon as I saw what he was doing and started taking photographs of him, his actions, and his license plate, he suddenly put his stuff away and got really nervous.

I want to point out that there are so many things wrong with this. First, poisoning entire colonies of Prairie Dogs is wrong. Second, he did not mark the field so no one knows what chemicals he was using. Third, if another animal gets one of the poisoned Prairie Dogs they will die was well. Poison is forever. Third, this is baby time, this is the time the young ones are born and in the caverns. Given where he was, this apparently is a sanctioned activity by the Church. Perhaps someone should sit down and read a few passages in the Bible about compassion and all that stuff.

I will be filing a formal complaint with all my photos to the State Wildlife Department, the Aurora Police Department, the Aurora Animal Control department, and the State Department of Licensing (wildlife control is a licensed activity and I somehow doubt this idiot was licensed.) There is nothing I can do for that colony of Prairie Dogs, but I can sure follow-up on this and make sure at least this idiot’s actions are seen and noted.

So, after I walked back home from that little discovery, I sat down and had breakfast with Jesse. And then I decided I wanted to go swim. I got to the Central Recreation Center, and believe it or not, got a lane pretty quickly in the lap pool. Unfortunately that did not last long. I had just gotten about 300 yards in when there are kids jumping into the lap pool without looking. It turns out that they had to close the main pool because yet again someone had a bathroom accident in it. This is now two weekends in a row, and that means that the pools will be bad tomorrow.

I gave up and decided to drive over to the Utah Indoor Pool that just re-opened and everyone keeps telling me that I should try. It’s a 25 meter pool, a little longer than the 25 yard pool I have been swimming in, But, it’s about 6 miles from the house and takes me a little longer to get to. I was able to get in a nice 2000 meter swim. I was annoyed, but recovered. I haven’t swum in a 25meter pool in a while so it took me a while to get used to the wall that had moved (25 yards to 25 meters — do the math kids.)

When I got home I decided to tackle putting the irrigation system box in place for the right side of the backyard, one more step to remove some heavy water use from the system (we are moving to drip and micro irrigation for anything that is not lawn area. It’s just not an easy thing to do as the yard is clay and I have to find the lines that I can disconnect and the ones that I need to tie into.

Anyways, then it was time to take Res and Climber on their afternoon walks, and feed them, feed us, and relax for the evening. I managed to get the laundry done, well actually waiting on the last load to finish drying, but one less thing that I do not need to worry about tomorrow. On my list of things I really want to do tomorrow is to dig out all of my hydroponic planting stuff from the shed, figure out where it is going to live this year, and then I want to build the double buckets that are now sitting in the living room still packed. This will be a part of the hydroponic setup this year, and I think that should keep me busy most of the day. I may skips my swim tomorrow, not sure yet on that one. I will see how I feel in the morning. Nothing’s wrong, but I do want to get some stuff done around here at the house.

Anyways, Res and Climber say goodnight and maybe we will see you all tomorrow.

Don’t they look innocent?

2026-04-11
Day 085 of 2026 – March 26th

I almost missed today, I am actually posting this tomorrow morning. I got caught up in a book I was reading and neglected my blog. I must be a bad person. No, seriously, I occasionally miss and have to play catch-up. Not a bad day for work today, there were a few orgizational changes that in the long run will make my life easier, and I am sort of thankful for that.

I tried to go swim today, but once again the pool had a school group over in the ricer walk area, therefor all of the river walkers were in the lap pool and also there was a swim lesson that was taking on lane out of four, and I have limited time at lunch so this was just not going to work. I ended up doing a walk along the Toll Gate trail instead.

I think it may be about time for our visitors to go home for the Summer.

© OpenStreetMap contributors

Total distance: 4.04 mi
Max elevation: 5612 ft
Min elevation: 5533 ft
Total climbing: 260 ft
Total descent: -253 ft
Average speed: 4.20 mi/h
Average cadence:
Average heart rate: 111
Average temperature: 29.7
Total time: 00:58:04

The rest of the day was normal. Nothing to exciting and nothing different. I think that will wrap up the 26th.

Day 085 of 2026 – March 26th
18394 E Arkansas Ave, Aurora, CO 80017, USA

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2026-03-26
Day 080 of 2026 – March 21st

It was a busy day today. I started the day off in my normal fashion, got up, dogs out, dogs given morning snacks, and then sat down with coffee and my email to see if anything additionally bad had happened overnight. I was pleasantly surprised, my email was not overwhelmed at all. Maybe all of our advance messaging on the app updates at work helped a little.

Doing this out of order, but a little later in the day I did finish my release testing and found a few minor problems and one major one on the iOS app. The Android is fine, I didn’t find anything wrong. I used to have the attitude that I liked Apple products because they just work. My recent experience has been different and I have grown to appreciate the Android product line more and more. Even the apps developed for Android are just better apps. Anyways, got that done and submitted my testing findings to my manager and it looks like the development team was watching the document as well.

Jumping back to this morning, I had my Physical Therapist appointment this morning over at UC Health for my left shoulder. I am now a little more positive about getting ready for the Mountain Swim Series in June. My PT wants me to get back into the pool and start swimming again. He thinks that it may actually help the area in my shoulder that is hurting. He says that I carry my left shoulder in a tighter fashion than my right one, and that is causing pain on my trapezius muscle and he could feel a knot in that muscle that is hard to get rid of. I got 20 minutes of massage and then we did some mild weight work, I think I will be able to follow that in the gym with a few dumbbells. Anyways, he wants to see me again next Saturday at the same time after I swim for the week. I will probably do 4-5 swims between now and then. I am taking one day and going hiking at Red Rocks and that will not be a swim day.

After the appointment I decided to check out a new trail (well new to me) that I have ridden light rail next to many times but keep saying I need to make time to check this out, and this is the first time I have been able to do so. It’s really neat. The paved trail goes North from the Fitzimins R Line station and first goes through the Cotton Wood Discovery Center. I found a few interesting things there but the most interesting one was a series of “Bee Hotels” that are designed for “solitary bees”, I never knew it was a thing, but look it up sometime, it’s really. There are bees that are not honeybees and are not part of hives, but they are still pollinators. These hives, or Bee Hotels were built for those bees.

At the Cotton Wood discovery center there was also a few areas to learn about the cottonwood trees and some of the history behind them.

Leaving the Cotton Wood Discovery center and heading West (I think) we leave Aurora and cross into Denver along the Sand Creek Greenway. There was a beaver that has been busy on one of the trees along the trail.

From there I had a bit of a climb, and finally got to a spot overlooking the creek and had a beautiful view of the mountains. There should be much more snow at a much lower elevation. We are going to have water and fire issues this year.

I finally reached the Bluff Lake Nature center which looks like it is brand new, or has just been rebuilt. I never knew this existed. It’s a trail and visitor center, as well as several learning areas for local school groups around Bluff Lake. Seems also to be a bird watching paradise because there were several bird photographers around with extremely expensive equipment trying to capture the perfect photo. I think I do pretty well with my Samsung Galaxy A24 Ultra Android phone.

I was able to get a few pretty neat 360 degree panoramic views as well. Click into it and look around! See if you can spot the dude with the extremely expensive equipment on one of the banks. Actually he was a pretty friendly guy, was pleasant when I walked by and I think I may have accidentally messed up his shot when the bird took off.

They also had some really neat waterfalls and little rapids in the stream as it went by. I think a few school groups may visit here because they have a locked up area for nets and river shoes.

I took the time to walk all of the trails that are open, there were some areas that are closed and are still under development, it was time to head back. I headed back to the parking lot staying on the Sand Creek Green way, following the creek back in the direction of Toll Gate Park. One of my future plans will be to walk that last 3 miles of Sand Creek Green way where it connects to Toll Gate Trail (which I have done all of). When I had completed all of this I was surprised that I was just over 6 miles walking. I thought it was a bit longer than that given that I had crossed over into Denver.

© OpenStreetMap contributors

Total distance: 6.1 mi
Max elevation: 5351 ft
Min elevation: 5289 ft
Total climbing: 397 ft
Total descent: -384 ft
Average speed: 4.08 mi/h
Average cadence:
Average heart rate: 106
Average temperature: 31.5
Total time: 01:33:10

When I got home I saw the Jesse had gotten the front flower bed under the garage window ready for planting. We have held off on doing anything with this because we really wanted to see if anything was going to grow in it on it’s own. When you move into a house you never know what you are going to find. Well, last year all that grew was weeds. We need to see what Jesse has planned to put in here. I think he wants to go with Colorado Native Perennials that are water wise (we really have to conserve water here).

For the afternoon Jesse and I made some needed changes to my VHF antenna on the roof. It needed to be lifted up a little higher, it still needs another 5ft of pole, but I don’t want to do that until after the house is painted and we have it secured better to the gable over Jesse’s office. I also need to run some grounding wires as if it goes any higher it is going to be a lightning attraction issue. Once that project was done Jesse started putting seeds in the seed trays so that we will have our veggies for the Summer growing season which looks like it is going to be longer than normal.

I went and started laying out the changes to the irrigation system that I am going to make this year. We really do not understand why the prior owners watered all of the rock along with the little gardens and lawn. To us this is a major waster of water and money. So, I am going to use drip and micro-spray irrigation in the gardens that are spread through the rock. The other part of this is that the piping that is in the ground is old and is starting to decay. We have 3-4 major leaks that I have already abandoned parts of the system in the last year alone. That project will be ongoing and but I want to get the main part of it done before I put water into the system, which I know I am going to have to do sometime in the next month or so.

To round out the evening we took the dogs for a short walk, it was a little warm for them outside today and with the temperature swings we have been having I do not want to push it with them too much on temperatures. Then it was rest time until dinner. We had hot dogs and potato salad, Climber and Res had their mix of chicken/veggies/rice with kibble. Everyone was happy.

I think this is where I call it a day. It was a positive day, nothing to complain about, and I am grateful every day that we moved out of Florida, that Jesse is here, that we have Res and Climber, and that we are slowly making progress on the things that matter to us most with the house. See you tomorrow!

Day 080 of 2026 – March 21st
18394 E Arkansas Ave, Aurora, CO 80017, USA

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2026-03-21
Day 074 of 2026 – March 15th

Got up this morning to a gift from the “Colorado Snow Gods” and found about an inch or two of snow all over the place. Given that it was 80 degrees yesterday and is going to be warm again tomorrow, I am not that worried about shoveling it. The ground was warm so under the snow there is some ice to deal with. The dogs went out, had a great time running around in the yard.

After Jesse got up I did walks, one at a time. Res, once he got over being cold, had a good time playing at the end of his leash in the snow.

Climber, the puppy that she is tried to pull me down a few times, but I did walk off the path a little bit to take a look at little stream that runs through the park. We’ve been here about a year and a half now and I have yet to walk over and look at it.

Of course Climber wanted to go swim, but that wasn’t going to happen in this lifetime. She then decided it was a good time to do zoomies at the end of her leash. I got her home, did a little backyard cleanup and then had breakfast. The snow does not help me get some of the things I had planned on getting done today done as I did want to do a few things in the backyard.

I spent some time trying to figure out what was wrong with the CAT control for one of my radios. It seems there was a version upgrade that was causing me all sorts of grief. So, once that was figured out it seems by Yaesu FT-710 Transceiver is working again. Let’s see if that solves some of the issues I have been having. I still need to resolve the issues with the antenna, but I now have a plan for that as well, that will be taken care of once I can get a post in the ground to help support my tall antenna. I am going to post my configuration files on the KO4YAW menu at the top of this site for anyone that wants them or cares.

And once I figured that all out I finally figured out how to get the packet bulletins to show on this WordPress site. Hey, there are some neat things in the packet bulletins, no advertising, and some really good information. You just have to find it in the groups. Take a look at the group page and see what you find: KO4YAW Packet Bulletins

I am on a roll! I also fixed the API scripts from Weatherflow that handles our Tempest Backyard weather station. That is AWESOME news because now my APRS weather information is being sent out properly.

I will probably figure out a way to create a weather routine for this blog as well. I also need to re-solder the antenna connection for the VHF/UHF radio, Climber pulled it down the other day off the desk and it tore the end off the antenna cable. I suck at soldering so I may ask Jesse to do that for me.

Did the afternoon walks, fed the dogs and then it was time for our own dinner. We had some excellent veggie and beef stew. Good thing we have a few extra days for lunch.

Tomorrows plans, I have work (of course), I really need to try to get back into the pool. If work is not too crazy I am going to try to vanish for an hours lunch break. I really want to get some longer swims in for the Mountain Lake Swim series in June. Today was a pretty good day. I got some things done that were bothering me and I kept running out of time to do it. So, what am I thankful for today? Well, my health, living in Colorado – Florida has gone crazy, the pack (Res and Climber), and Jesse for always being there.

Day 074 of 2026 – March 15th
18394 E Arkansas Ave, Aurora, CO 80017, USA

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2026-03-15
Day 054 of 2026

Climber was a lot better this morning. When I got up and let her out of her x-pen (yes, she is in one at night) she attempted to race me down the steps. There is still a little limp, but I really think she is just sore. She loves her walks and perhaps she had a little too much walk yesterday. Anyways, got up with the dogs and did our morning routine: outs, snacks, and then Res goes back to bed, Climber stays downstairs with me. As today is a travel day, I had to get my stuff together. I did most of my packing last night, but I still need to do the cords, the power adapters, and try and figure out if I forgot anything.

Jesse took me to the A-Train and then that is my ride to the airport. Takes me less than an hour from leaving the house to get to the airport, luggage dropped, through security, and to my gate. I love flying out of Denver. Once all the required stuff was done I was able to walk the terminal and get my steps in for the day. I forgot to start my indoor walk activity so I guess the time does not count, the steps will.

Flight boarded and we almost go out on time. Minor delay when they had a hydraulic indicator up front, but that was resolved in 15-20 minutes. I like when things are resolved quickly.

We are now probably an hour or so out of Orlando.

Arrived in Orlando about an hour late. Took another hour to get my luggage, and then it is off to the rental car lot and then the hotel. I have absolutely no idea why GPS took me the way it did back to the hotel, but I saw some new areas of Orlando that I have not seen before.

Anyways, I am in for the evening, so I am going to say goodnight, and tomorrow is another day.

2026-02-23
Day 045 of 2026
Today did not start off as planned. The dogs and I got up at our normal time. Spent our quiet time with snacks and outs. Jesse got up around 9am as normal. And then things changed.

Gizmo started howling. Now, she has been howling a lot lately, but this was different, this went on for about 30 minutes before I went to find her. Normally when she howls she is in the hall and it is obvious, this time she was no where to be found and I had to go look for her. I found her crouched under a night table, amid dried up poop. I picked her up and took her downstairs with me. She ran to her litter box and then projectile vomited all over the place. I found two other spots as well.

I did my morning walks with Res and Climber while thinking through what to do. I despise ER vet visits, but I also do not like my current vet that we started using for the dogs when we first moved out here. I got back to the house, we had breakfast, and I decided that I had to take Gizmo to the vet. I already knew what the outcome would end up being, projectile vomiting is never a good thing with her, and I was not going to put her through yet another surgery. It was not a financial thing, she has good pet insurance, it’s an age a quality of life thing.

I made my initial FaceBook post as I always do as I left the vet. No last minute photographs, I don’t believe in that.
```
RIP Gizmo. 

We will post more later.

Update: Hi all thank you so much for all of your messages and thoughts, but for Gizmo please think some happy thoughts. Seriously I know it doesn't sound right, but she is in a much better space now. I firmly believe it. She has not been happy for some time, she has been sick, she has not been cleaning herself and she has been withdrawing more and more. I make all of our pets a promise when we adopt them, that when quality of life disappears then I will be there with them when it is time. Promise kept. This was not too soon, this was right. This was not a financial decision, she has very good insurance, this was a quality of life.

I leave this post with one last thought

The vet had to sedate her to even place a catheter.  That part was done without me present as I did not want to remember that. But she was still with us when they brought her to me, wrapped in a blanket and when she laid down next to me she started purring. As calm as could be. She purred until right after the anesthesia took hold. She left this word happy.

This is the first time I did not sit with a pet for 10-15 minutes after the procedure. I just couldn't. I really just wanted to remember the last bit of purring. It was as though she was telling me all would be OK.
```
RIP Gizmo 5/4/2008 – 2/14/2026

Gizmo walked into our lives on July 4, 2008 and stole the heart of Bracken. She was raised by a gentle greyhound that let her lay on him and sleep with him without a worry in the world. She welcomed every greyhound since with open arms and taught them quickly…. Don’t mess with me or I will get you.

She ruled the roost when it came to the greyhounds. She thought she was a greyhound and would do the same things that they would do. She would drink out of the same water bowl they drank out of, despite it being raised off the floor. She was known as the clean up crew…. If you left food in your bowl she was going to come clean it up and if you were eating too slow she might just walk between your legs and help you eat your dinner.

She was the best judge of a greyhound when it came to them being cat safe. We knew within minutes if a greyhound visiting the house or was a candidate to join the pack was cat safe or not. She would disappear and go under our bed and would not come out if the hound wasn’t cat safe. If it was cat safe or workable she would sit in the edge of the door watching and deciding her next move. She never took shit off of a hound and always put them in their place if they thought they were king of the house.

She would sleep in the biggest dog beds in the house and even would sleep in the “golden crate”. The dogs knew that if she was on a bed or in a crate you didn’t bother her. She was sharp and would put you in your place.

She expected the same treats that the dogs got and would give them an evil eye if they were getting too close before she got her treat and don’t even think about taking it from her because before you knew it your nose was sore with that machine gun like paw of her’s…. She would slap sense into you before you knew what hit you.

Over the years she still slept with the greyhounds and earned their respect and they earned her’s. She always looked after the pack even when they were outside. If she saw something that wasn’t right she would let out a growl that would get your attention and make us get up and go see what was going on. She was always right… Something was a miss outside with her pack.

She will be missed on calls as she always let her displeasure with management known and had an uncanny ability to know when everyone on the call was displeased with something…. She would caterwaul at the right time and make everyone on the call laugh.

She will be missed by us and the pack!

Gizmo First Photo

Gizmo And Bracken Best Buds

Gizmo And Bracken

Gizmo and Mindy

Gizmo During Florida Move

Cleanup Duty

Communal Water Bowl

Gizmo and Lady

Little Marshmallow

Gizmo’s Portrait

Prime Real Estate

Favoriate Spot in Florida

Gizmo and Res

Gizmo and Res

Goodbye – Run with the Pack

After I came home, I needed to just be outside for a while, so I went for my afternoon jog/walk. Went locally because I really didn’t feel like going anyplace distant.

© OpenStreetMap contributors

Total distance: 5.25 mi
Max elevation: 5649 ft
Min elevation: 5472 ft
Total climbing: 429 ft
Total descent: -428 ft
Average speed: 4.35 mi/h
Average cadence: 59
Average heart rate: 116
Average temperature:
Total time: 01:15:05

I think I am going to say goodnight for the evening and see you all tomorrow. I am hoping for a better day.

Day 045 of 2026
18394 E Arkansas Ave, Aurora, CO 80017, USA

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2026-02-14
Day 036 of 2026

It’s nice to be home. But, really not much to talk about today, it was a work day and a very busy one at that. I logged in around 6:45AM MT and didn’t get a break until I was done at 3:55PM MT. I usually log in early in the morning as I work for an East Coast company that starts work around 8:00AM ET and finishes around 4:30PM ET, that lets me work a 6:45AM MT to 2:45PM MT schedule, which makes the afternoons really great. But, lately I have been having an issue just fitting everything in.

I feel bad when this type of day happens because I try to go outside and play with Climber on a daily basis, but that did not happen today. And I was gone for the last week so it’s been about 8 days since I played ball with her. I have to get outside with her tomorrow a bit after I do my appointment. I also need to see if I can get her started on agility training. I think she may be perfect for it, if I can focus her energy a bit.

Have some health news as well, remember a few days ago I mentioned I had a sudden heart rate drop when I was doing two treadmill workouts? Well, my cardiologist was not impressed. I guess I am going to be wearing a heart monitor for two weeks starting as soon as it shows up. I am instructed to do my workouts (with the exception of swimming) as I normally would but to make sure I get a couple treadmill workouts into the mix. The two cardiologists I work with want to see what is actually happening and what is causing it. The last time I had this type of monitor it was a sticky mess. I am not sure why, but for some reason the people who design cardiac monitors do not design them to be worn while working out. Yeah me.

My other small problem is that both of my feet and ankles are pretty swollen. As in swollen to the point of not getting them into my shoes easily swollen. The left one is much worse than the right one, but neither is great. I am not sure why this is happening so badly right now. It could be due to the travel, but in reality I have not been sitting around that much. For the 5 days in Vegas I was very active and my flight time was only around 2 hours of sitting so I don’t think that was the problem. None of my flights were over 2 hours for this trip. I am retaining water in a big way right now. Another topic for discussion with the doctor.

I have two sleeping dogs here, Res is out here in the middle of the floor and for some reason Climber is being a crate baby this evening. Doors open, she’s just decided to hang out in her crate. She does this on occasion. She’s a good girl most of the time, just a little young greyhound hyper. And OFF she goes!

Climber, PLEASE leave him alone!!! He’s sleeping, it’s not play time.

I think that’s a wrap for today. Tomorrow is another day and I may have some interesting stuff to share.

Day 036 of 2026
18394 E Arkansas Ave, Aurora, CO 80017, USA

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2026-02-05
Nice Day 001 of 2026

Nice start to 2026. Hung around at home, took down the outside Christmas decorations. Wanted to get that done before it decided to snow, as unlikely as that is with today’s temperatures. During the day I also finished an awesome audio book that I have been trying to find time to listen to. “The President Is Missing” could very well be set in current tines. Check it out if you get a chance.

Took Climber and Res on alone walks, they need to be walked by themselves occasionally and I try to do this on weekends when I have time and it gives Jesse a break. Res decided to sniff every blade of grass along the way.

Then went over to Olympic Park to do a section of trail that I have not done before.I wanted to connect my completed trails at Cherry Creek State Park to my completed trails in Aurora. I still have the goal of completing all of the trails sometime in the next year. A lot depends on weather and travel. The long sections I can only do on weekends.

It almost looks like Olympic Park was taken over by Canada’s Air Force – The Canadian Geese.

© OpenStreetMap contributors

Total distance: 5.04 mi
Max elevation: 5698 ft
Min elevation: 5604 ft
Total climbing: 367 ft
Total descent: -360 ft
Average speed: 4.24 mi/h
Average cadence: 58
Average heart rate: 126
Average temperature:
Total time: 01:13:10

2026-01-01
November 2, 2025 – That’s All Folks!

Today was the last day of work in Los Angeles, I can finally go home! This started off as only being a one day trip out, two days of work, and one day of travel back. Then… the phenomenon of “while you are out there” hit. Turned out to be one day travel out, 4 days of work, and one day travel back. Yeh, I could have predicted that, in fact I did when I packed enough clothing for the extra days.

The claim I had to do today sort of annoyed me. The last technician who was assigned to it backed out of it because of a loose dog in the yard (the worst she would have done is lick you to death if she had even moved), not to mention that to get to the electric meter one didn’t even have to go into the yard. Then, the whole reason a Technical Field Manager was being sent was that the 1099 technician said that PPE (personal protection equipment – read, “Tyvex body suit and N-95 mask”) was needed. On the way out stopped at the local Home Depot and got the supplies. Turns out wasn’t even needed. Yup, house was damaged, but no place as bad as the other technician said. He just didn’t want to do it. Anyways, it’s done.

Got back, went to the grocery store up the street from the hotel. I do that frequently while traveling, especially on weekends, because sometimes the weekend cooks at the hotel restaurants are really bad as was proven again last night. Went up got some really good roasted chicken, cheese, crackers, and fruit for a snack later today. As I was looking at cheese the gentleman working the “good cheese” area offered me a sample of their specialty cheese for the season. OK, I didn’t know it existed but Pumpkin Spice cheese is a thing, and a damn good thing! I didn’t get any as it would have been difficult to bring back to Aurora, but I did find out Ralph’s is part of Kroger and they all carry the same products. Yup, Jesse is going to go find me some Pumpkin Spice cheese.

We all get into routines. When I finish an out of town work trip, I have some of my own routines, I catch myself doing the same thing each and every time:
1) I stop in the first parking lot I come across as I leave the last loss location and re-pack all of my tools in the tool suitcase. I also search under all of the seats and anyplace else where things could have rolled.
2) I make sure that all of my receipts are entered into Concur so that I do not have to deal with them after I get home.
3) Back at the hotel, pack all of the dirty clothes into the laundry back, make sure I have accounted for everything. Get it all into one place.
4) Search my backpack and make sure that there is nothing hiding in there the TSA won’t like and steal.
5) Rest and relax. Tomorrow is a travel day, the airline Gods, the TSA Gods, and the ATC Gods willing.

Time for the remaining part of my “Rest and Relax”!

Finally! Just to say it again: :LA Drivers SUCK!!!

2025-11-02