The Most’est of the Post’est

Wow, another weekend of work but I think that there is light at the end of the tunnel (so to speak).  The playhouse continues to be a thorn in my side.  I thought it was built on a patio of pavers.  My cheap, old, guy strikes again.  The playhouse “looks” like it was built on a patio of pavers.  Actually, it was built on a hodge-podge of stones and blocks with a paver outside.  Now, I need a dumpster to get rid of all the crap.  We are having pictures done this evening.  The house goes on the market tomorrow and we have a showing tomorrow morning.  The house looks awesome.  I have to thank my lovely wife for all her help and my awesome brother in law and his family for their help.  I would have not met this deadline without them.  Also, I need to thank my son for his help.  The next phase begins…

I have U.S. Waterproofing coming over on Wednesday to look and find a solution for the window wells – ugh.  Last Wednesday, we had a butt load of rain and it overwhelmed the drains in the bottom of the window wells.  We had puddles in the basement again.  The first time in 2 years.  I think that they are pulling away from the wall and letting water come in on both sides.

Today we are having an IT Town Hall and I was supposed to give a small presentation but it got cut down to one bullet, so I am speaking about our new legacy password reset feature.

Ratpuke7

I’m really hating this buy/sell a house thingy.  Its so much stress and work on both ends.  It’s amazing to me that anyone does it.  There has got to be a service that takes care of it all for you.  I don’t know, I’m sure there is money to be made.  It’s a huge, flipping grind.

There are so many things we need to do before we put our house on the market.  Originally, we were going to put it up for sale on Friday the 13th, but I we are probably delaying till Sunday the 15th.  I can’t believe the difficulty and amount of garbage taking apart the playhouse.  What a pain in the ass.  I should have done this last year.  I will say one thing with certainty, I will not let the new shed go to hell due to the elements.  That is getting painted and the outside of the windows are getting scraped and painted, and caulked where necessary.  Flooring is getting changed.  I was looking at the flooring that mimics the distressed wood planking.  I may put in heating elements under the flooring in the family room, not sure at this point.  I wonder how efficient the warmers are?  I looked them up and the seem kind of efficient, but I spoke with my boss and he said he has a 30amp fuse attached to the warmers and they suck a butt load of electricity.  Now rethinking the warmers in the family room.

Ratpuke7

 

It sucks, the media Nazis are at work now.  No more streaming music.  I guess I have to start using the iPOD.  Thank god I at least have that.  Now I just have to find another cable.   :\

Yeah, the bid was accepted and we are getting a new domicile 🙂  Yesterday I was there for the inspection and to drop off the earnest money.  The awnings were up and looked awesome.  I read the inspection report this morning and there wasn’t anything crazy but as I thought about it, there were 2 things that concerned me.  First, that there were 3 foundation cracks that showed signs of seepage and second, the crawlspace has a rock/gravel floor which I may have to have tested for radon and remediation.  I think I am going to ask for the cracks to be sealed as to avoid any future water damage.  Closing is on July 1.

What a cool time at martial arts today, the speed is just incredible.  Got killed every which way with the knife. Started putting the chair knife drill together with hu bud, added tapping, arm lacing, and some chin na, there are answers for answers, and no answers ever work twice.  Its very humbling to plug into Danny.  The dude is phenomenal.  I cant wait to plug into John, he is supposed to be at another level than Danny.

Ratpuke7

 

Been out of town and extremely busy.  Between issues in EPM, away on business training, looking to move, getting the house ready to put on the market, and general BS on the home front, I am feeling the stress.  Planning on moving to the south side to be closer to work, looking for a ranch style home.  I will certainly miss where I am currently at as far as location goes.  I will also miss my current home which I poured heart and soul into.  As my grandfather once said, “All good things must come to an end”.  I need to acknowledge, open a new chapter, and move on.  It doesn’t prevent those feelings though.  I worry concerning my kids though, we are moving a ways from their lives.  It will be interesting to see who comes and who doesn’t.  I can’t imagine either of them not coming.  They are not at that point in my estimation.

Got some Tai Chi Chuan validation from a guy at the health club.  He spoke broken English but was able to let me see his Yang style sequence and was pretty decent for just 1 year.  He must have been much more diligent than me or at least his teacher must have taught him the whole sequence first.  Was fun to meet a comrade in arms.  Maybe he would like to practice together.  It would be very cool.  One big issue though, although he is a doctor or maybe the husband of a doctor, his language may be a barrier.  There are multiple parts of Tai Chi Chuan to explain:

• Part 1: Chi Kung warm ups
  •   Beginning stretching
  •   Breathing and relaxing
  •   Preparation stance
  •   Right foot forward, weight distributed 50/50
  •   Cat stance
  •   Heel Stance
  •   Reach down and touch toes
  •   Push foot flat to floor, push knee slightly backwards to stretch hamstring
  •   Left foot forward, weight distributed 50/50
  •   Cat stance
  •   Heel Stance
  •   Reach down and touch toes
  •   Push foot flat on floor, push knee slightly backwards to stretch hamstring
  •   Prayer Wheels, left then right
  •   Cross Arm Rotation
  •   Flying
  •   Picking fruit
  •   Arm Swing
  •   Leg Swing
  •   Polish the Mirror
  •   Advance, Retreat
• Part 2: The single forms
•   There are roughly 33 single forms per section
• Part 3: The show form
•   There are 3 show forms (one per section)
• Part 4: Push Hands
•   There are 10 push hands types
• Part 5: Self Defense
•   There are at least 1 self defense techniques per single form
  • There are at least 4 types of self defense that can be used per form
    • Striking – hitting and kicking
    • Chin Na – joint locking
    • Shui Jao – knocking off balance or throwing your opponent
• Part 6: The long form
•   There are 3 show forms that comprise the long form
• Part 7: Staff form
•   (no experience yet)
• Part 8: Saber Form
•   (no experience yet)
• Part 9: Sword Form
•   (no experience yet)

The funny thing is that pure Tai Chi Chuan is about neutralizing your opponents moves.  There seems to be a darker side of Tai Chi Chuan which includes destruction and control of the opponent.  I guess that there is Yin and Yang in everything.  Tai Chi by nature is Yin and Yang.  Tai Chi Chuan is considered the “Grand Ultimate Fist”.  Tai Chi is practiced slowly and smoothly to groove muscle memory, to make sure your structure is sound, and to be in a relaxed but ready state called “Song” which can be used against your opponent if you are willing to experience “loss”.  It’s a very paradoxical art, where you need to appear to lose to win.  However it is said that you learn to win the quickest if you learn to lose.  I don’t know – It’s not something for the western faint of heart.

Ratpuke7

Listening to my Prince stuff today and bopping around my music collection.  My personal Prince favorite is that slow, popish, bluesy, “Purple Rain” tune.  I’m not gonna lie, I’m kind of sad about Prince.  The early 80’s was when the clouds cleared and I woke up.  His and Michael Jacksons music was what I really remember.  Heading up to visit IBM in Rochester, Minnesota next week and ill be thinking about him.

Interesting thing today, I finally got back the results from the 23andme genetic testing.  It didn’t tell me anything I really didn’t already know except for 3 things – all 3 were amusing, nothing bad.  First, my ancestry was divided up as follows…  40% Polish,  20% Irish, 40% Dutch German (the amounts were a surprise), second – Photic Sneeze response (I didn’t realize it was genetic), third – I am sensitive to bitterness tastes (which explains why I can’t stand those horrible I.P.A.’s (also didn’t know it was genetic).  What I really wanted to know was if whether or not I was genetically predisposed to one of the myriad of funky diseases (I’m not).

I can’t believe the Blackhawks pulled it out last night.  Oh well, off to TaiChi.  Just got back from TaiChi.  I guess I just missed one of the living masters today.  I will admit that I am bummed about that.  I guess I missed him by minutes.  Maybe some other day.  Next Friday I will go early.  Today worked on inside, defensive, point down, flat bladed, hu bud, knife removals, with arm lacing, and spine stacking – fun.  The time flies by when at the dojo.

Ratpuke7

 

Listening to Scheherazade:Rimsky-Korsakov.  Trying to soothe my pounding headache behind my eyeballs.  Took some Advil to no avail – sinus day.  No fun.  This weekend we looked at houses Saturday, painted the master bath Sunday.  Went to Home Depot for window trim, a doorstop, and some grab-bars.  What a madhouse yesterday.  The parking lot was packed.  Speaking of such, I have to stop at Costco today on the way home.  Also speaking of the Madhouse, listened to the Blackhawks game.  It seems like the “Hockey Gods” are a fickle bunch.  Lots of back and forth.  Maybe they will be in our corner tomorrow night.

We were looking at homes in the Palos, Orland, Tinley area on Saturday.  There are not are a lot of “true ranches”.  There are however, a lot of three step ranches and split levels.  Saw a nice couple of ranches Saturday – the first had potential, the second also had potential.  Neither one was exactly what we wanted though.  The first (Orland) had everything we wanted except that only the kitchen was updated.  We would need to redo a bunch of stuff – including installing, refinishing or tearing out before we could move in.  Lots of carpeting, some hardwood, some hardwood under carpeting.   Carpeting is a no-no for my wife.  At some point, we would need to redo the master bath.  Lots of space though.  We would also need to find somewhere for a stackable washer and dryer on the first floor.  Would need to take the carpeting away from the steps downstairs and some of the basement.  Also we would need to either paint the paneling (there is lots of it) or remove it.  My wife wants an open concept floor plan and that could be done with some beam installation due to load bearing walls.  Unfortunately, the house is around the top of our range and won’t leave much for renovation.  There is one that has it all completed but its over our budget by a slight amount.  It has everything that we want with no work.  We also saw one (Tinley) that was open concept, a 2.5 car garage, kitchen redone, bedrooms separated by a great room, a 3 seasons’ room, redone master bath.  Its downfall is it had carpeting that would need to be replaced immediately (kind of a wash).  Second, it had no basement but that could be slightly offset by 0.5 garage – if garage could be heated (do able).  It had a crawl space for stuff.  No extra room for art.  That would need to be limited by working in either dining room or 3 seasons room, or if a kid leaves the nest.  It had some positives though – first, it had a gas assist fireplace, an updated master bath, a walk-in closet, 3 seasons porch that could be heated, a decent patio, although it faced west and there was no outside respite from the sun.  It had a fenced in yard, and it was within easy bike distance from my brother in law.

My headache is finally easing 🙂  I am trying to get excited about putting the house on the market but its just not coming.  As much as I hate to say it, I love my pergola that hangs the bird feeders.  I look forward to that with the bird bath in the mornings and when I get home.  I like the bird variation.  Haven’t seen a hummingbird yet this year.  The majority are probably not yet here.

Ratpuke7

Listening to Stevie Wonder’s “At the close of a century” album.  What a great musical artist!  Still applying Oracle HFM patching. Finding out that if I just copy and paste from OneNote, due to auto formatting it breaks the lines apart and causes scripting errors.  If you just copy it to notepad, and copy it off, it executes it fine.

I was just admiring my aircraft banners I created.  They are personal photos from the “Chicago Air and Water Show” 2015.  I was out on my bosses boat to watch the show from North Avenue beach – show center.  Awesome seats 🙂  We set off that morning from Michigan City and traveled across the lake to Chicago – which took approximately an hour.  It was really the first time I was using the extra lenses on my Nikon.  I took a butt load (over 350) of pix and only about a dozen were worthy of what I would call art.  The Breitling aerobatic team from France was really cool and it was the first time they did an American Air Show.  They do a lot of formation flying vs. the pizzazz of some of the American jet maneuvers and raw power of the American military.  One thing that I had have never seen before was at the ending of their show, the planes dropped flares.  That was a really cool ending.  Kind of like an air show with fireworks.  Loved the little A4 jet, the Blue Angels, as well as the Aeroshell team.  There was a neat team of aerobatic prop planes that were different colors. It was a long day with lots of sun.  I always like the ride home across the lake.  The waves are usually a bit choppy and we go “balls out” across the lake.  When you pull into the calm bay water before the river, its so serene and calm.  Kind of like the silence is deafening.

Ratpuke7

Was listening to Laszlo again this morning but the music was causing anxiety.  Had to stop.  I think I will listen to Lady Gaga.  Much easier on the nerves.  I guess an artist who does music called the “Amygdala Expedition” doesn’t produce relaxing music.  Listen to this stuff while reading H.P. Lovecraft – haa~~~haa…. daydreaming… haa, Cthulhu

Back to reality.  I still have to work.  It’s taking a while to do a data refresh of JDE (amazing), 15hrs+.  We are not even using this much at this point.  Have to go do a meet and greet for an immersion meeting.  Rather listen to ArtPop.

Ratpuke7

Listening to Laszlo Hortobagyyi .  Doing cob-cob stick fighting sets last night.  Seeing how those can easily turn into empty hand hits using hubud.  Today, working on applying HFM patches and trying to get development back up to date.  Also doing Tai Chi test today.  Worked on first set-single forms last night and had issues with remembering the nuanced beginnings and moving.  I will need to ask for a review before the test today.

Passed Tai Chi but still need to work on the first set.  Got some cheesy video.  Crazy busy at work putting the HFM patches in.  Bye for now.

Ratpuke7

Listening to Led Zeppelin.  Love this shit!  Makes me really appreciate the 70s, sans disco.  Not that I don’t love disco, because I do, but classic rock really overpowers everything else from that decade (which I feel started in 1969 and ended at the end of 1979) IMHO.  Went and looked at homes with my wife this weekend (we are considering moving and downsizing).  I am not sure I am ready for downsizing yet.  I still have way too much living to do and I’m not ready to throw in the towel yet.  I feel that that’s what that signifies.  Doing more with less because less is more important. Because less is easier to deal with.  It’s all about what you can deal with.  Overwhelming an older mind.  Fuck that.  Give me more technology, I will adapt.  Speaking about adapting, I had to laugh, I was heading out this morning to work and I wanted to bring my Tai Chi video to watch at lunch.  I also wanted to refill the suet feeder for the woodpeckers.  So I put the dvd on the chair arm (knowing damn well I will probably get distracted and forget the dvds), went outside and came in and walked past the dvds and went to work.  Now, I know my shortcomings and still didn’t compensate.  Next time I will have to put my car keys on the dvds.  As Clint said: “A man’s got to know his limitations…”.  Speaking of birds, I also put out the Hummingbird feeder.  No Tai Chi Sabre this weekend – bummer.  Had to work and refresh some data in some if the test systems.  I did however get the bathroom ceiling patched and painted.  I’d rather being painting canvas’ than ceilings.   My art buddy is going to leave me in his dust!  For the love of all that is ADD…  yes, this is a rambling diatribe.

Ratpuke7