Category Archives: Michael Miles

CARRIE’S FIRST TWO WEEKS

The first two weeks, two weeks after tomorrow have gone fantastic. We have had only one hiccup and that was last Tuesday when she woke up after only sleeping an hour and was crying. She did not know why and ended up getting out of bed and going to the couch for a bit. She at times will toss and turn when we first go to bed and will get up because she does not want to wake me and I keep telling her she won’t but she keeps doing it. I’ll learn to live with this because I love her so very much.

We went to first Friday here in Thomasville and had a great time. Stopped at multiple shops and bought some great treats we have been munching on for the last week. We did some shots of Fireball before we left and the evening ended with dinner at the Bistro in the Marriott Hotel where I was living for the first two months.

Back to that crying bit. When she got up for the day she was having a lot of anxiety and needed to talk to Cat and Ricky for a bit. They calmed her down to a point but when I got home we worked through her problem and she took some medication. I/we don’t like her to take those but we limited it to 1/2 a pill and that seemed to work great. Since then everything has been great.

We have been doing a lot of shopping to make this apartment a home away from home for her and I think things are looking really good and she is liking it even though it is costing money.

I’m pretty sure she is going to be doing really well for the rest of her time here and I will not be very happy when she leaves. As a matter of fact I will hate it and most likely be crying a bit when she does.

CARRIE’S DAY OF ARRIVAL

Carrie missed her flight from Seattle. She was devastated and didn’t think she would get here.

Let’s start from the beginning . I asked her the night before if she was packed. She said she had everything ready and just needed to close the suitcases when she was ready to go in the morning. Things were not ready enough and she needed to switch things up and have two checked bags. Trying to pack at the last minute when you are not ready with the addition of not having travelled much (three times) she ended up forgetting a lot.

At the airport she checked in curbside which is fine but something I never do and was asked if she wanted a wheelchair. She said yes and they took her through security and onto the gate, which was great. Now things started to go sideways. She needed to go to the bathroom. In the bathroom she took some pictures, sent them to me, and finished. When she left the bathroom, she decided she wanted some cash, so she went to the ATM and after that turned around and the gate was empty. They had already boarded the plane and the aircraft had pushed back and left. This all stems from the fact she didn’t know the plane started boarding 30 minutes prior to departure and the doors shut 15 minutes after that. She went to the gate and asked if they had boarded yet and was told that the plane had left. She immediately started crying and needed to call me. Thank God the Delta personnel was there and took control of the mistake and reticketed her for other flights. This meant she had a couple more hours in Seattle, a five plus hour layover in Atlanta and would arrive in Tallahassee at midnight giving me lots of time before Daryl and I had to pick her up.

She was escorted to the new gate via wheelchair in Seattle and was met at the gate by a Delta employee in Atlanta waiting to take her to the next gate. After missing her flight in Seattle there was no way she was going to drink or eat anything and just stay put at the gate until her flight which is over four hours away. I called her after she arrived in Atlanta and after talking to her for a bit asked if her gate had changed because they frequently do. When she made the inquiry, her gate had in fact changed and the Delta personnel were upset that she had been left there for so long and wasn’t taken to the new gate. This was resolved and I got off the phone with her because I was about to leave and pick her up.

To finish, her flight arrived at 11:36 and by 11:50 she was letting me know she had her bags and was outside waiting. I had told her to text me when she arrived so I could meet her at baggage claim, but things were happening fast. I found her immediately putting her luggage in the car, stopped so she could go to the bathroom along with Daryl and then on to Whataburger where she got a chicken sandwich meal. Remarking that the sandwich was too big, and I could have some. She finished the fries and the sandwich, obviously she was hungry.

We arrived home at 1:00am on Wednesday morning and didn’t get to sleep till about 6:30am. We were both up by 1:00pm doing nothing for the rest of the day. Ordered pizza for dinner and went to bed at 9:00pm.

It was a remarkably busy day for her, and everything worked out perfectly. The road is no longer broken.

Carrie will be here tomorrow!

Yes, her panic attacks aside Carrie will be flying in tomorrow. I will meet her at the airport and stay home the next day as well just so she gets used to being here and I just might kiss her a little bit.

Had to do a little cleanup during the weekend because of this freaking cold or whatever it is.

Quick edit here. Carrie is on her way. I finished cleaning up in the this morning, it is now Tuesday and have things pretty much ready. She called me a bit ago and she missed her flight. I am quite sure this has her completely frazzled! She will be just fine. She knows I’ll be there when she arrives. She won’t be here till midnight now, five hours later than she should be but all will be ok.

Working From Home

Last week I was working from home because of this COVID-19 virus. Today I learned that I may be working from home for the next month. That isn’t so bad because I get to bank an additional 1600.00 because I’m not riding into work with Sam. Sorry about Sam though. I know this really hurts him.

More bike work done

I changed out the mirrors and seat. The seat because I was having so many problems last weekend and the mirrors because the ones I had ordered were do cheap.

New mirrors are nice and sturdy, the other would change positions with the wind while riding and they kept coming out of the handle bars.

The new seat, unlike the old one stayed in the position I placed it when the clamp was tightened. I also added some loctite between the pressure plates in the clamp as well. Hopefully ensuring the seat doesn’t’ move while riding. The seat also holds my anti theft alarm much better as well.

I also purchased some riding shorts, loose fitting that I can use my padded shorts with. I ordered the largest size they had, triple ‘X’, based on their size chart should have fit but they will still too freaking tight. This morning, Monday 10-21-2019 I ordered another pair of shorts, this time getting 5x. Waist size, miniumu 42 and max 57. These should fit. By the time I finally got the shorts and the mirrors put on it was too late in the afternoon to ride. The temp had also risen to a point where it would have been uncomfortable riding in my jeans.

I also made some lateral adjustments to the phone holder allowing better access to the Osmo Action camera. In its previous position, the access door for the camera mount would rub against the phone holder. Not bad but moving it made everything that much better.

Better luck next weekend. The weather looks great and I am more than ready!

On another note, I tried to call Dad yesterday afternoon before bed and he still didn’t answer. He called back about 10:10pm, well past my bed time. Well, talk to you soon Dad.

Lectric Bike Arrived

Tuesday afternoon:

On Monday of last week thought about and created a list of accessories to purchase for my Lectric bike when it arrived. On Tuesday I had the feeling I needed to place my order now and at the same time I added a couple additional items. I changed the seat I put on the list and added an anti-theft alarm, a Rockbros bike rack trunk w/pannier, slime anti-flat tube sealant and an action camera mount.

Hopefully the handlebar extender I ordered will hold the phone holder and camera mount and possibly add the remote for the alarm as well.

When I got home on Tuesday I was making a salad for dinner and I received a phone call from the office asking if I was currently at home. Fedex was there and going to deliver a ‘big’ box. Whoo hoo! My bike has arrived! Since I had not heard from Lectric Bikes I was expecting an email from them tomorrow letting me know the tracking number and then delivery on Monday.

That’s why I had the feeling to order everything. At is stands most items will be arriving tomorrow with the balance coming on Thursday. After checking the weather for the weekend I think I will be doing some riding!

I am very excited. (I can’t believe ‘I’ actually said that).

P.S. I actually held off on opening the box until Wednesday afternoon when I can plan the location to film the unboxing and assembly. Total time should be about 30 minutes. 27 minutes to unbox and take off all the wrappings etc. and 3 to unfold and display.

Total time was about a half an hour to set unbox, unfold and set for proper display.

I spent almost the entire day Saturday adding all of the accessories I purchased. It took the entire day because of some fit issues. First the extension tube mounting bracket did not fit well. The handle bar tube seems to be on the small side and the width is quite narrow as well necessitating the use of the extension bar. I added a wraps of packing tape to increase the diameter of the handle bar for the extension bar which worked fantastic.

The Battery Bank phone holder and Action Camera holder were placed on that.

The cute little bell was moved to the other side of the handle bars finishing up the additions there. See the pics below for the final product.

Bike with new accessories attached

Here are all the attached accessories.

Side view showing back trunk/pannier
Rear

This bike, even though I have problems with the seat post and seat was so much fun to ride.

Bike should be here soon

I delayed the delivery of my Lectric Bike XP and can’t wait for delivery. I think by early next week. Monday I hope.

Today I made a list of accessories to purchase for the bike and the list is:

Smart Helmet
Phone Holder (With Charger)
Handlebar Extender
Bike Lock
New Wide Seat
Water bottle holder
Handlebar mirrors
Action Camera Mount

This list should do it for now. Can’t wait to get out and put it all to the test.

Second time was great

What I mean by ‘Second Time’ is last weekend was the second time I have gone without alcohol. I use to stop every Thursday afternoon at at the liquor store and purchase my drink of choice for the weekend. I would then end up finishing most of it off Friday evening and completing the bottle on Saturday morning. This would leave me tired and not wanting to do anything Saturday and at times Sunday. If I had a package coming on Saturday I would most of the time wait and pick it up from the office on Monday.

That all has changed now with me forgoing the weekly trip to the liquor store and heading cold turkey into the healthier and much more fun completely sober weekend.

I get more done, work on more things and just feel all around better about my drive to loose this extra weight. Hopefully I will be fitting better into my jeans by the time I head to SC to see my brother and this family. This two weeks away and should be plenty of time for the ‘lack’ of those extra calories to take effect.

I also purchased a new watch, coming today, a fenix 6 pro. Love those watches and this new lineup will have the Oxpulse, a new and improved heart rate monitors as well as syncing to music. Coming tomorrow will be a new tripod and a mini travel gimbal. I still need to figure out how to pack my camera bag.

The weapon is now in use

We will see what happens regarding the weight loss now. My secret weapon was to cut down alcohol consumption significantly and this weekend went very well. Much better than I had hoped. The only problem was I ate a bit too much. I’ll combat that this next weekend. I think I was just so happy to start and the cut back went much better than I had hoped.

I did some video shoots with the Osmo Action and my Lav mic but realized that when I did my sound check point by clicking my fingers I had forgotten to click my fingers in front of the camera so there will be no visual clue to use when I sync the audio. oops. Another try this weekend will need to be done. Additionally, I purchased a Rode Wireless GO microphone which should be here this week and will be much better than the wired lav mic. I look forward to this video shoot and the experience using Premier Pro for the first time. If Ken can do it, I can do it.

Hopefully my Robomaster S1 will ship soon, everyone else seems to be getting it. How come mine is taking so long to ship. I think some people were fibbing a bit when they said they ordered it as soon as it was announced. They got theirs in two days and I ordered mine at the same time and the website said it would ship 20 – 25 days after receipt of payment. Anyway it will be a fun project to put together on a Saturday afternoon when it finally arrives.