I’m expanding my horizons. This weekend I had a baby on my knee and a cat in my house. To most people this may not sound very extraordinary…and it’s not.

I took in Steve’s cat for a week and she’s nice to have around but it’s not for me long term. When I arrive home, I notice the cat living there. It’s not even the cat’s fault. It’s tremendous. It cleans itself, hardly sheds, and poops and pees in the litter box which is all you can ask for. I actually even like the cat itself even though its purr shakes the room. Waking me up at 5:30 am also isn’t my favorite.

I went to CK4’s party on Saturday and Jkash had his litter of children there. I held one of the babies and it didn’t poop on me. Here’s a picture. I was not given the rights to show the baby.

I received this comment the other night:

Hey Tom,
 I watched Stranger Things based on your review in your blog.  I enjoyed it. I thought El’s character was mesmerizing, and liked the entire cast overall.  I already liked the idea of parallel universes going into it too, so that was cool.  Just thought you might like to get some good feedback on one of your posts from a while back.  Thanks for the recommendation

I enjoy receiving comments like this. This blog has been around since April ’09 and I’ve had various intentions over the years. To start, the blog was to my immediate friends. Then I intentionally started creating posts that I thought would do well from a traffic standpoint. Next I made an effort to actively get anyone and everyone reading the blog to comment. Now I don’t give a shit who comments and I’ll write for me. I always welcome comments but I’ve stop pandering to an audience because it’s not worth it.  However, when someone recognizes the quality of what I’m posting, that’s the sole purpose of what I’m going for.

Rnningfool Blog Traffic

Do I publish shitty posts? Of course. I recognize that most of you don’t care about my bowling league. I know that you probably don’t care what place I’m in my Fantasy Football league. I don’t expect people to comment on these types of posts. This is why my blog is my blog.

Do you know many people maintain personal websites? I’d guess less than 1% of the population. There’s no money in it. It’s a lot of work. Hardly anyone recognizes the work and there’s not a lot of reason to do it. I’ll continue to post about anything and everything and if once in a blue moon you decide to let me know that you liked what I wrote, that’ll keep me doing it. Thanks.

I  went to Deliah’s for about 30 minutes. I met a stripper who was an alcoholic and got into a fight after drinking too much tequila. Of course I bought her a shot of tequila and she whispered sweet nothings into my ear. I was too smart for that and went to the stage only to give a 10 out of 10 an amazing 5 dollars that I mistaken for a 1.

I went home to recover but the damage was done.  I went to the bowling alley to see if they had any open lanes but they did not.

My new thesaurus is terrible.
It’s also terrible.

Sam and I went back home to bowl in the league on Monday and we ended up going 2-2 to bowlers who didn’t even care if they played let alone won. Very frustrating. Wevs carried the team and everyone else was a bit below average.

It’s also my final day at the beach as work keeps piling up and I’m heading back to not get overloaded for Monday. Combine that with an Eagles-Steelers tailgate and Monday may not be so productive. I’ll be on the Texans -1 for 4 units tonight against Rob Kelley’s wishes I’m sure.

Golf went well yesterday as I made a slight adjustment to my swing and was hitting the ball with good contact time and time again. I finished with a 90 but could have been shots better if it wasn’t for a few unlucky breaks.

The 10 seconds where this video is pointed are hilarious.

I’ve been waking up and doing what your supposed to do on vacation, nothing. Today I spent an hour doing the crossword puzzles. 30 minutes on the 3 star Sudoku which I cleared today. An hour researching fantasy football. Now I’m writing this blog post and will go for a run for an hour before playing golf. I could get used to this.

A photo of an Ikea and irrelevant to this entire post

Stortz Tools printed a new catalog and one of my jobs is distributing it. I spent the last 3 days on the road and you may, but more likely may not, find this worth reading.

Day 1

I woke up at 5:30am on Monday and ran, literally ran, to the shop to get my car which had about 5k worth of inventory in it. I drove the car to the gas station to fill up the front right tire with air because a brand new tire not installed correct had a small leak. This gave me anxiety throughout the entire 3 day trip.

I showered and put on slacks and a button down which I’ll comment on later and set off. My first stop was in Trenton. I drove the 45 minutes North on 95 and got a 20 oz coffee and 2 Sizzli’s from a nearby Wawa. I won’t bore you with my sales pitch or how people reacted because it’s truly not that exciting.

I ended up making 18 stops on the day which is pretty damn good. It shows that good planning and mapping out your location ahead of time pays off. I essentially went from Trenton, NJ to Scotia, NY, making stops along the way, all in one day.

I ran through here.

I stayed in Saratoga Springs, NY because I know the Pres had been there. I got a room at a Best Western for $115 and went for a run around the area. I felt really good after the run and ate at a local brewery called Druthers. I drank 4 beers, watched the NFL, and talked to this one bro who claimed that the Space X explosion was caused by aliens. Maybe?

I fell asleep at 10 pm after losing 4 units on the Redskins and not betting the Rams (thankfully).

Day 2

This is what a slab of slate looks like.

I got up at 6am and got the Best Western’s continental breakfast. The coffee was horrible and the best part of the meal was the Frosted Flakes.

I headed out around 7 and listened to Howard on my way to the next trip in Poultney, Vermont. If you aren’t familar with Poultney, or Granville for that matter, it is where all of the slate comes from in the USA. I made a few more visits to people we sell to and then met up with the people who were the reason for my trip at 10am.

Once again without boring you with details about my work, I partook in an instructional class in slate roofing. We viewed the mill process of slate and even had dinner at the Slate Museum in Granville. I went to sleep around 10pm but once again was exhausted from the day.

Day 3

I awoke to an awesome sunrise at the Panarama Hotel in Hampton, NY. I then did a little presentation on slate and metal tools and made my first mistake of my trip. Instead of getting footage of the instructional class, I left to make more sales calls but I didn’t realize they were too far away.

This is exactly what driving through Vermont looks like.

I left Vermont and traveled 3.5 hours to Somerville, MA. I hit some traffic on the way and by the time I had made 4 stops in Boston and Brockton, it was already 2:30 pm and I was an hour and a half away from any stop to make that I knew of. I trekked the 6 hours home through GW bridge traffic and nearly peed myself. I had a 32 oz Gatorade bottle but was pretty sure I’d fill it up. I was lights out when I got home.

Final Thoughts

• 

  I can’t take anymore sales trips.

  It was odd when I’d walk into a store with my nice clothes on because the people would immediately get intimidated. The 3rd day when I was making stops I was dressed in a polo and jeans and it felt much more comfortable to all parties involved. I’ve read before that you should be dressed a little bit better than the person you are selling to and when your customers are 9-5 customer service people, the nicer is not better.

• Driving too far out of the way is not smart. The furthest stop away from each stop should be 30-45 minutes. If places are spread too far, you end up driving more than you want to.
• Sirius radio is a life saver because it never lose the signal. Google Maps is also essential to traveling to the unknown. I swapped between Howard, Fantasy Football news talk, and music the entire way. Google Maps is also on point with timing and directions. No complaints.
• Pounding the pavement is an outdated means of salesmanship. It’s too slow. The pro’s are that you actually meet people face to face and see the locations of where your products are being sent which you cannot do from inside a room. The con’s are that it takes a lot of time and you are primarily speaking to people who aren’t that interested. I know that sounds stupid but you try to open up new accounts. It’s not an easy task.

I purposely didn’t post who I want to draft so snakes wouldn’t steal my picks. I subscribed to ProFootballFocus before the season started which pretty much leaves Rotoworld in the dust. I suppose there are 2 ways to look at paying for information:
1) It’s cheating because everyone should be on the same playing field
2) It’s not cheating because everyone can do it if they want to

Considering the amount of time I spend watching and researching football, I look at paying for a service an investment and if that gives me a leg up, hopefully I’ll see dividends. As such, all of my drafts went swimmingly and I think I’ll be in good shape as the season progresses. If someone reads this and wants to pay me for my login info to see PFF’s info for a discount, I’m willing to talk. Also here are Evan Silva’s week 1 matchups which are a must read if you play DFS.

In other news we’ve been bowling a lot and Sam has been setting the bar with high scores. I myself set a new career high but it’s not a big deal to me because in the near future a 300 game will be thrown and that’s when I’ll get excited. I wrote before that there can be a sense of jealousy in another person performing at a level that you haven’t done yet but I don’t feel that. Being able to practice and hit new highs together is not only how a team improves, but it helps everyone improve as individuals.

I’ll be going away next week on a sales trip so I won’t be posting. As much as I would like to get drunk and watch football this weekend, I have to prep for this trip and it’s consuming much of my time. Combine that with football research and I’m barely able to knock out these blog posts. I started the season 1-0 on bets with a Denver win yesterday so I’m sure I’ll be writing about my picks and players upcoming.

First and foremost, Sam rolled a 289 which is the best bowling score out of anyone I know. Sometimes there’s a feeling of jealousy when a bowler is doing really well and you think to yourself that you’d like to see them miss. This was not the case when we were rolling on Friday as I was really pulling for a perfect game. They don’t come along very often and when you get the chance at one, you have to root as hard as you can for it to happen. In due time,

In other news, my parents purchased a mountain home in the Poconos. Believe it or not it is surprisingly affordable. The family went for the first time this weekend and it’s a nice change of pace from the hustle and bustle of the city. When I go for runs, it’s weird to be completely by myself. It doesn’t happen in the city. The lifestyle is a little different too as we’d go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier. The house is still being fixed up and is going to be a nice long term investment for the family.

Sam gave away 20% of the value in his guess the change game and I’ll do the same. His change guessing game received 23 answers. My guess is I’ll get less. Make your guesses of how much change is in the pictures below in the comment section or on Facebook. Payment will be made through Venmo.

Guess Away