Random thoughts, organized and categorized for your consumption.
General
Things so normal as to not fit neatly into any other area.
Short Take: Driving on a Saturday
May 13th
It was warm out today so I decided to take the car out for an extended spin. Little did I know that I would get to experience all of the following:
- - Massive amounts of traffic
- - Crazed drivers who must race and pass me every 5 miles
- - That “bad fish” smell that comes from certain areas near the ocean
- - Many dead skunks on the road (and now on my tires)
- - Large 4×4 trucks with muck falling off of them
- - Roads closed due to mudslides
- - A Saturn that nearly became part of the rear of my car
All that for a few pictures More >
Good Flights, Bad Disposal
May 2nd
As the ski season has drawn to a close, I switch my attention to aircraft again. This past weekend saw both of the airplanes up and flying again after the winter weather kept them indoors. I was a little rusty, but quickly found my skills coming back after some circuits around the field. That is good news, to be sure, since it means no need to quickly replace another airplane (or all the parts that go with it) in the fleet.
On the down side, my under sink disposal unit decided to go belly up. For those who have not had More >
A Friendly Reminder: Don't Valet Park
Apr 16th
I just had another of those experiences where I kick myself for knowing better, but then I go ahead and do something anyway. I convinced myself that it might be OK to allow someone to valet park the C6.
The guy who took the keys could barely speak English, and he couldn’t tell me how he was going to park the car (yes, the vette requires a special shutdown and park procedure) and he had to summon someone over who spoke a little English to notify me that yes, he had parked “one of these” before. I would later learn that More >
In Sickness, Not In Stealth
Apr 9th
Here I am, trying to recover from time off, spending just 4 days up in Tahoe and coming home feeling the most sickly I’ve felt in quite some time. Ear and head congestion, ringing in the ears, and a general feeling of unbalanceness (is that even a word?).
Serves me right for trying to take time off while at the same time dealing with the aftermath of work and the complete lack of outside-of-work issues. Save for the taxes. This time of year is oh-so-much fun thanks to taxes.
The PSP is taking over
Feb 18th
I held off for a while, but I now own a PSP. While this is not totally unexpected, given my employer, what is surprising is the speed at which it has consumed my personal time.
This is due in large part to the PSP’s WiFi abilities. You see, it can browse most web pages and stream music wirelessly. This means I can listen to virtually any podcast anywhere I go, as well as any music I happen to find. Combined with GTA I find less and less free time on my hands.
The next step for me, obviously, is to setup some PSP specific More >
One Step Closer to Wired Bliss
Feb 7th
Tonight (or this morning) I took one small step toward hardwired ethernet and phone line goodness in the house. I’ve now wired the spare bedroom directly into the downstairs office, eliminating what I hope will be the last of the connectivity problems with the remote PCs.
There is still stuff to do, like cleaning things up, painting and patching walls, and the like. But with the connection now working up and downstairs, it seems like things are on the road to networked utopia.
Tahoe Skiing 2006, part 1
Jan 16th
On Saturday and Sunday, January 14 & 15, the California ski season began for me. It wasn’t the greatest skiing in the world, thanks to some high winds, wet snow, and really cut up trails at Heavenly, but it was skiing nonetheless.
I’m now at home and really tired, having realized that my legs are just not in the kind of shape they need to be in order to squeeze maximum vertical footage out of every day on the slopes. Guess its time to get on the treadmill and start eating my Wheaties.
Back in Town and Driving Around
Dec 24th
After a long dry spell with no postings, here’s an update. I’ve just gotten back from two full weeks of travel plus another two days on the road inside California. Due to all of this I’m spending the Christmas and New Year’s holidays here at home. This is the first time in nearly two months where I’ll have a stretch of time to sit down and just be at home.
Of course, I can’t sit around and do nothing (besides watch movies and Tivo) so I got brave and zipped out in the rain with the new car. It was a More >
Home at last
Nov 29th
I pushed on through and drove direct from San Diego to San Jose tonight (or today). It took longer than I had hoped, starting at around 7pm or so, and ending at 12:45am. The car is finally in a home garage again, extremely wet, and slightly dinged, but in pretty good shape all things considered.
It was 4 days and 2000 miles of driving, but I’m glad to finally be home. Next time I will definitely take the plane. When I wake up sometime today I’ll try to post some new pictures of the ride in the gallery area.
More >California Drivers are the Weakest Link
Nov 27th
I had always believed that Californians were poorer drivers than the rest of the country since moving here 10 years ago. However, I now have definitive proof that they are the worst. Take this sampling of data, for instance:
- States travelled through: 5 (OK, TX, NM, AZ, CA)
- Worst roads encountered: New Mexico (washboard consistency)
- Fastest speed limits: Arizona (75 MPH most freeways)
- Least traffic encountered: New Mexico (desolate in most places)
- Dead wildlife leader: Texas (nearly every 10 miles something was toast)
- Most stop and go traffic: California (starts at the border near Interstate -8)
- Most police on road: California (from mile 3 onward)
- Largest percentage of More >