Normally one would think of vacations as relaxing affairs that soothe the mind, body, and soul. Mine don’t feel like that as there’s a bunch of walking, hiking, swimming, and such. As noted, I broke the step record on this trip too!
This one is for the most floors. I live in Texas, it’s flat, I mean really flat and there isn’t really anywhere I can go to walk up. I guess there is a stair machine at the rec center but you’d never catch me on it. To be blunt I hate stairs, or more specifically, I HATE the way my legs feel going up steps, super painful.
So today, Sandy and I conquered the trails around the resort, well the vertical ones anyways. Beautiful views and lots of stairs. My old record of 38 floors set on our fall 2022 vacation in Georgia on 9/20, this one if 50 floors. Long live this record!!!
Yesterday I logged the highest recorded steps at 28,033. This surpasses the previous high mark of 27,110 set on June 18, 2022 which was Brittney’s wedding. So aside from Sandy being with me for the records being set, Mike and Shelly were there too!
Today has been a little more chillax than yesterday. I was also moving a bit slow and sorely from the record breaking walks yesterday. I’m really digging the breakfasts here, they’re buffet with bacon, sausage, potatoes and fruit. Normally I don’t do breakfasts but if it’s already paid for and there I’m on it.
We booked a ride into the town of Loreto from the resort tonight. It was $20 per person which was a little steep but honestly town is like 45 minutes away so you figure $20 for 80 or 90 minutes which, once broken down, isn’t all that bad.
The city of Loreto is a quaint town by the sea, there is a waterfront strip that kind of reminds me of the dock up in Erie in that people just cruise up and down in their cars, motorcycles or 4 wheeler’s. There seemed to be a festival in place, now that I think of it maybe a lead up to cinco de mayo? There was a scary clown throwing candy at the kids that were gathered at the front of the stage, my dislike of clowns was exacerbated by the fact he was speaking in tongues, well Spanish but I can’t be sure it wasn’t something darker.
This is the first time in decades that I’ve traveled abroad and I’m always a bit leery to be out of my comfort zone and I’m deathly afraid of being seen as the ‘stupid entitled’ American tourist. So I keep my head low and always wear a smile. I try to put myself in their place, what would I feel like to see them come to my town? Be nice and respectful of their lives and culture. duck!
So the little bits and pieces of python I’ve learned are paying off. Today I managed to create the first workable TCC export rendered from the custom dictionary. I’m using ElementTree and I’m not 100% sure what I’m doing but it’s reading and rendering the XML properly and that’s probably the best measure of success. So now I should be able to create the config files as they are rendered XML also. I think now I’ll work on rendering the SQL for DB/table creation, that may be a little rough hewn but should work for warehouse purposes.
Tip of the hat to the counter-culture that’s gone pretty mainstream, to all those with sunshine in a bag, puff puff pass;) Reminding me of my college days:)
So for some reason, I get it in my brain today to throw the bikes in the back of the truck, and let’s head down to Gateway Park and do some biking. All of that was fine and well and we did half an hour of biking and loaded up the bikes and headed back towards the house. As we were leaving I noticed my bike handlebar hanging over the side, I half thought I should do something about that but that thought was fleeting and on we went.
We stop at the mall to get something and I then see the damage that’s been done by the brake handle digging into the paint on the side of the bed. So I guess the next thing I’m going to be learning is auto body repair with a major in painting…
Today my friend Tony is being buried. Elsewhere today my friend Mike and his family are laying his dad to rest. While death is a natural part of life, it’s not one of the more fun aspects of it. The finality of the loss of a living being you have memories and history and love for, it’s tragic and leaves the color of the world a little bit duller and the sound of life more muted. But life goes on. I feel bad because I didn’t get the card in the mail to Beth until Friday and she wouldn’t have gotten it in time for the funeral. I sent a check for $500 to help with anything they needed. When I talked with Tony last, he lamented his credit rating wasn’t that good because everything was paid off and they had no payments so that’s good, but with three kids there are always expenses I’m guessing. And I’m almost positive that Tony left a bit earlier than he was intending to.
That leaves me thinking if things are ready should I suddenly be gone. We own everything except half the truck and a loan on the house for home improvement we haven’t used. I don’t have any kids so should I shuffle off this mortal coil, I actually walk away a winner with assets to disperse that Sandy gets all of and that should set her up for her remaining time, she also has kids that could give her a hand if needed so I think she’ll be fine. Should I somehow manage to outlive Sandy I’ll simply sell it all, build my barndo in the middle of nowhere, work gig jobs and live out my days in nature.
We’re camped out in San Angelo state park in San Angelo, TX. It’s a desolate area that’s next to what used to be a reservoir (O C Fisher lake) named after Ovie Clark Fisher who was a US representative for these parts for 31 years. The lake is at 2.8% capacity. Yes that is a dot in there and yes it’s under 3 percent full. This is what the boat ramp looks like:
So water sports would appear to be out but that’s okay, we left the kayak’s at home anyways. We also left the bikes which I wasn’t super happy about forgetting especially as this is a biking state park, really spread out and no traffic because there’s no lake.
It was an emotional roller coaster of a day. Aside from being backlogged at work and it’s time to get hours in for the last month, the cats had their first vet appointment in about 4 years so they had the full workup and were not happy about it. We got that done and I headed to the gym at 1. I did my usual 2 miles almost having a panic attack over something called ‘the end’ in my head over and over again. After my cool-down walk back to the car, I was feeling slightly better. Well enough to head home and get to work, there’s a ton to get done. I get seated at the computer and start working on an issue and Mike texts saying that he got a strange FB message from Beth asking to call her. Oddly enough at the same time, I’m getting a 2FA request from FB to change my password. So someone got hacked, right? Mike and I realize that we don’t have a text number on Beth or Tony for that matter and figuring Mike was at work and couldn’t make a call I’d just call the house and see what’s up.
Beth answered, she’s got a very distinctive voice and you could tell something was wrong. “Tony had a heart attack this morning and died”. My brain understood “Tony”, and it understood “heart attack and died” but it was having trouble merging the two concepts. “I’m so sorry” is all that came out which was thankfully somehow filtered from the “Are you fucking kidding me” that my brain was actually returning from the failing merge operation stated above.
And that’s it. Tony is dead. He leaves behind a wife and children, family and friends who don’t have a choice to go on because that’s what life does, it’s indifferent to the dead, they physically aren’t in the equation anymore. But they are forever ingrained in our hearts and minds as we move forward in a world that’s suddenly a bit dimmer and a little harder to laugh in, and there’s yet another entry in my contacts that I can neither call nor delete.
I’m sad for the loss of my friend, I’m even sadder knowing what his wife and children must be going through. Funeral plans have not been announced but I feel I have to go, I regret not going to ones of people who were a large part of my life. Grief is better shared among those who understand and feel the loss together. I’ll try to attend if I can.
