Sturgeon’s Law Ninety percent of everything is crap.
Derived from a quote by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon, who once said, “Sure, 90% of science fiction is crud. That’s because 90% of everything is crud.” Oddly, when Sturgeon’s Law is cited, the final word is almost invariably changed to ‘crap’.
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I just finished reading Too Close To Home by Linwood Barclay, the cover shouted at me in the used bookstore, “IF YOU LIKE HARLAN COBEN (I do,) YOU’LL LOVE LINWOOD BARCLAY.” So I picked it up. In the beginning it had that HC feeling, the plot was almost worthy of the statement, but in the end Linwood Barclay is no Harlan Coben. Not that I won’t read any more of his books, it was a mostly entertaining ride that is probably worth repeating.
As I went to color in the zero on page 101 (my way of ensuring I don’t pick up the same book more than once at our favorite used bookstore) I noticed that there was a page corner turned down. Ah, that’s right, I loved a little passage on page 182 that I wanted to share. Here you go.
In the years since she’d moved here from Hollywood, Ileana had gotten the small town college president’s-wife thing down pretty well. Expensive, but tasteful clothes, heels that were high but not towering and no longer made of clear plastic, a blouse unbuttoned far enough to draw your eye in, but not enough to give any real kind of show. But under all that upstate New York respectability there was still something of the tart about her. Like she was chewing invisible gum, making high-frequency snapping noises detectable only by the true hound dogs of my gender.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 412
 A confluence of events last week led me to purchase something that I’ve wanted for a while and had given up on after my last attempt.
I was catching up on reading some long neglected linkage on my sidebar when I ran into a post from August 26th on Darth Mojo. Wow this is what I was hoping for back in November of 2006, but that unit disappointed and didn’t get used too long before being exiled to a closet.
Then a day or so later I saw that very same keyboard listed in a Gadget & Gear Deals of the Day post on Lifehacker for a killer price, $55 with a twenty dollar rebate.
It arrived Wednesday.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 412
This morning we took a little trip downtown to St. Mary’s School’s Annual Chocolate Festival. We didn’t consume anywhere near the 97,000 calories that were on display at the bake sale tables. It was probably somewhere between 97 and 970 because all we spent on cookies and brownies was a buck and a quarter.
We spent $11 dollars on used books. Donna bought 16 kids books for nephew James at a quarter a piece and I bought 3 hardcover books. The one book that cost the most, nearly 50% of our book expenditures was Lee Child’s 2007 Jack Reacher tale, Bad Luck and Trouble.
I’m 150 pages into the 370 page book, it’ll probably be finished before tomorrow night. Chapter 13 starts like this:
At six the next morning Reascher went up to Neagley’s suite. He found her awake and showered and guessed she had been working out for an hour. Maybe in her room, maybe in the hotel gym. Maybe she had been out jogging. She looked sleek and pumped up and vital in a way that suggested there was a whole lot of oxygenated blood doing the rounds inside her.
After the festival we took the long way home via the bypass so we could drive by and look at, quite literally, the biggest thing to ever happen to Aiken. It has been the talk of the town since last weekend when the 300 foot long 1.89 million pound transport carrying a giant generator parked along the side of the road east of town. There is a photo in this article from the local paper, but you cannot get any idea how big this thing is from it. Plus in addition to the transport rig there is about a 1/4 miles worth of support trucks parked along with it.
Somewhere during our excursion the Emperor passed the 97,000 mile mark.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 412
What’s that spell? Nothing, but it does finish up Alphabet Soup — South Carolina Style.
I mapped out a loop that took us almost to Columbia because that is where the closest Z cache resided. We also needed a J and there were two of those within a couple miles of the Z. SC302 to I-26 to US1, there were 14 caches within a 1/2 mile of the route and we did 6 of them.
Cross off one more county, Lexington and one more DeLorme page, 37.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 412
There is no baseball game tonight, the regular season is over. The playoffs start Wed/Thurs, but it is the beginning of the end.
Today was a rainy, damp and relatively cold day (only got to around 60.) The leaves haven’t started changing yet, but they will. And then they’ll fall.
It is only 7:30 and the sun set nearly a half hour ago, it is fast becoming dark too soon.
I can hardly wait until spring…
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 413
Not too long ago we finally replaced our old warhorse of an electric frying pan. Because it is just the two of us we didn’t need anything too big, so we bought the only option we had in a 12″ square size. It preformed wonderfully and the only problem is the markings on the temperature dial didn’t last very long. After slightly overcooking something the weekend before last I surfed over to the manufacturer’s web site looking for picture of the dial so I could take a felt tip pen and crudely recreate the markings. Not finding any help on the site, there is only one image of the thing on there, I found the contact page and left a note explaining my predicament asking for a photo of the dial.
Dear Brian,
Thank you for contacting Oster, a brand of Jarden Consumer Solutions. We apologize for any inconvenience you have experienced with your SH12 and will be happy to help you.
Please respond via email with the exact date of purchase and a code located on the bottom of the unit or engraved on the outside of the metal prongs you plug into the wall to give the unit power. The metal prongs are located on the end of the power cord. This code should begin with one letter, followed by three numbers.
We appreciate your business and are happy to help if you have any further questions.
Sincerely,
Jennifer
Jarden Consumer Solutions
www.oster.com
I especially like that they told me where to find those tricky metal prongs you plug into the wall. I write back:
Jennifer,
I have no earthly idea when the unit was purchased, I am not expecting a replacement under warranty, I would just like a high resolution or spec drawing of the temperature dial so I can remake my existing unit.
The number engraved on the plug is “A201J”.
The label on the underside of the power section reads:
Model: TKSP-S008A-10
125Vac 60Hz 15A
E81296 (SP)
MADE IN CHINA P.N. 128149
Thanks for any help you can give me,
Brian
The next day I get this reply:
Dear Brian,
Thank you for contacting Mr. Coffee, a brand of Jarden Consumer Solutions. We apologize for any inconvenience you have experienced with your skillet and will be happy to help you.
We do have replacement options available for your SH12. Although we appreciate your willingness to repair the unit, we cannot send out internal components for both liability issues as well as certain patent concerns as many of our parts and schematics are considered proprietary company information.
Again, we do have replacement options available for your SH12. If you would like to discuss these options, please contact us at our toll-free number 1–800-334‑0759. For your convenience we are available 9:00 am to 6:00 pm Monday — Friday, EST. Please have your electric skillet available when you call
Again, I apologize for any inconvenience. We appreciate your business and are happy to help if you have any further questions.
Sincerely,
Holly
Jarden Consumer Solutions
www.oster.com
At first I was a little miffed at the direction this was taking and then I noticed my poorly worded request. So I try one last time to get across that I just want a picture of the dial:
Holly, Jennifer or any other random CSR who gets this,
I believe I was misunderstood in my previous email because I said remake when I actually meant to say remark.
I just want an image of the temperature control dial so I can remark with a pen the missing settings, allowing me to be able tell what temperature I have it set at. I am not interested in a replacement part because it will, with shipping, handling and tax, probably end up costing more than if I were to drive to my nearest Walmart and purchase a whole new skillet. Which is exactly what I am going to do if you can not supply me with a picture, catalog image or hand sketch of said dial. And you can take a pretty good guess as to which brand I won’t include in my decision making.
Thanks in advance for your consideration in this manner,
Brian
Frustrated Consumer
www.mr-miata.net
Figuring that I was going to get another polite email suggesting I call about replacement parts, I was totally floored with their reply the next day:
Dear Brian,
Thank you for contacting Oster, a brand of Jarden Consumer Solutions. We apologize for any inconvenience you have experienced with your SH12 and will be happy to help you.
Unfortunately, we do not have a scan to send you or a replacement temperature control. Therefore, I have placed an order for a SH12 that you will receive within 2–3 weeks.
You will receive an order confirmation, shortly as well as a shipping confirmation when our item leaves our warehouse.
Again, I apologize for any inconvenience. We appreciate your business and are happy to help if you have any further questions.
Sincerely,
Holly
Jarden Consumer Solutions
www.oster.com
Thanks Holly/Jarden Consumer Solutions/Oster/Mr. Coffee, really nice way to turn a possibly crummy situation into a win for everybody.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 414
Time for the Emperor to dress up for Halloween.…
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 418
Couldn’t take the blovations of the TBS crew any longer, so I stopped watching. I’ve listened to the last two innings the way I used to all season, on radio via the ‘net. The game is now officially half over and stands as a scoreless tie.
I can’t stay up any longer, so the FRS will just have to win (or lose) with out me.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 420
We only worked a half day and after lunch at home we hit the road to the SMH. We grabbed three caches on the way up and had our first DNF in three weeks behind an abandoned shopping center in north Spartanburg.
Instead of driving the whole way from Newberry on I-26 as usual, after the miss in Spartanburg Donna let me finish the trip on US176 which parallels I-26 to Hendersonville, but is a lot more scenic and more of a Miata road — read windy, twisty, switchbacky.
Guess what we had for dinner? Right. Pizza at West One in H-ville. We opted for a change of flavor and went for the prosciutto pie. This is the third variety of pizza we have tried here and we are both hard pressed to pick a favorite.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 423
 We were treated to a nice sunrise from the second floor deck of the SMH. Grabbed a couple shoots through the screen on the porch and this is one that the camera didn’t actually focus on the screen (I didn’t even think that it could focus on something that close.)
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the back roads near Hendersonville with no particular destination in mind, but to capture a few of the 400 some odd caches within 25 miles of H-town that I have loaded into the GPS. Snagged a half dozen of them. The leaves are just starting to change around here, perhaps 20% or so are now yellow, orange or red which made the rural roads twinkle in brief flashes of color as we zipped down them.
 My sister and her husband arrived at their southern home around mid-afternoon and we spent several hours catching up over dinner and a UCONN football game on ESPN. We didn’t see the sunset, but on our evening walk we were treated to some interesting reddish clouds.
Like the last time we met them here in late July, we spent one night at the SMH and then vacated the place so Allen’s sister and her husband could spend the night there. Like last time, they weren’t supposed to get to the townhouse until later. In July we left in the early afternoon and missed them, this time we hung around until about 8 PM and they still hadn’t showed up. We are getting together with Diane and Allen in the morning for breakfast at a local restaurant and we asked if the sister and brother-in-law would be joining us, but he laughed and said, not that early. 8:15AM? The last (and first) time we saw his sister and her husband was at Diane and Allen’s wedding about 20 years ago. My paranoid side is now convinced they are avoiding us.
Started up, went down, went up, back down, up again, down again, up once more, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 429
The FRS had their hats handed to them this afternoon by the that team from out west with an unwieldy name, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Well, there are still a couple of teams playing, but they don’t count…
After a couple of weeks languishing on the eastern bypass of Aiken and setting tongue’s a wagging all over town, the biggest thing, literally, to hit town has moved on. We know this because on our way back from Hendersonville this afternoon we were stopped by a huge commotion of cop cars and 18 wheeler trucks in the town of Johnston. The 1.2 1.89 million pound generator (according to an earlier referenced Aiken Standard article) and its entourage was parking for the night at the corner of SC 121 & SC 191.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 430
Our new TV is your basic LCD wide screen and it has four display modes 4:3, Zoom, Just and Full. 4:3 is for basic TV and leaves black bars on the sides, Zoom makes HD cable shows that have black bars all around the picture fill the screen, Full stretches the 4:3 picture horizontally to fill the screen and Just does something similar to Full except that the middle of the picture doesn’t get as distorted as the edges.
I hate the stretched look that everyone and or thing gets when a normal sized TV picture is stretched to fit the wide screen, so most of the time when I’m watching the tube I will keep it set to 4:3.
I want my HDTV. I think. I sit here watching House and wonder why I’m getting a pan and scan image without the pan, the left and right edges of peoples headed are chopped off.
House gets broadcast in HD, so I’m betting if I paid the cable company extra I could get the full image, but that ain’t happening. I wonder if I bought some of those new fangled rabbit ears I could pick up the Augusta FOX channel in HD?
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 431
Our new replacement 12″ Oster Electric Skillet was sitting on our doorstep this evening. I want all my regular readers (all three of you) to down load this picture and save it on your PC in case I need it in the future.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 432
When I got into the car today after work I noticed that when I stepped on the floor mat it went squish. It was soaking wet.
Admittedly it has rained like crazy the last few days, but there was no way I could track in that much water. In the Miata world there are two main reasons why there would be a lot of water on the floor, not counting leaving the top down in the rain, a plugged drain in the door molding and a plugged A/C drain line.
The water was only on the driver’s side of the car which eliminates the A/C drain line because that soaks the passenger foot well. Must be the hollow in the door molding. I poked the long thin brush I have for cleaning Camelback hoses down there and it wasn’t plugged at all. A mystery.
I dried out the area as best I could and we’ll see if the water reappears.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 433
We finished watching Disc 1 of Season 1 of Taxi last night and while we thoroughly enjoyed the show way back when and we enjoyed re-watching these 8 episodes, we decided to take the rest of the discs out of the queue. Sometimes you just can’t go home again.
Now that I don’t has the FRS to listen to anymore (well, at least for the 6 months) I’ve been watching some Netflix Instant Watch movies, finishing three of five in the last week. DNF’d were Sex Drive and Numb.
Finished (along with the movie note I sent to friends):
Brick - Mix an LA high school unrequited love story with a heavy dose of “The Big Sleep.” Then add a plot so thick with characters that when the movie ends you may not know what happened. Interesting watch.
Deadgirl — This isn’t for many people & I’m not so sure I’d even recommend it to anyone. Even with a central theme that is about as sick and twisted as can be, I found this a movie worth watching.
The Last Word — Boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, in spite of himself. Boy & girl break up. They don’t get back together. Quirky. Quiet. Dark. Contemplative. Oddly enjoyable.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 435
I like computer work while in the dark. That’s why I love lighted keyboards. At home the only things that give off light are the monitor, a small light behind the monitor pointed at the wall giving a nice ambiance and the previously mentioned keyboard.
At work I have removed the florescence tubes from as many fixtures as my coworkers will let me get away with, the room my cube is in holds four people. And I also have added a couple thicknesses of plotter paper to the ones that still have bulbs to dim them a couple notches too. I have two small florescent fixtures under the cabinets to each side of me that provide a nice bit of task lighting. It’s as good as I’m going to get here.
My other three roommates were not there for various reasons today, so I had the place to myself. About mid morning I got up, walked to the front wall and turned off all the lights. There was one fixture up front over near the door that always stays on for emergencies, but it is out of my line of sight. Queued up some light New Age/Ambient music and aaaahh, almost like home.
Trouble was the quiet didn’t last for long, as about half the front office staff pass through up front on their way to places and nearly everyone of them when confronted with the darkness had a reaction. They either had to a) walk back to my cube and ask if I wanted it that way, b) walk back to see if I was sleeping, c) walk by while shouting out asking if I was there or d) walk through and turn on the lights.
By after lunch everyone was used to the new darkness and I was pretty much left alone and I got quite a bit of work done.
Including making a Boss’s Day Card from a template I found on the web, love the retro business look. Here is the cover and the inside just said, “Happy Boss’s Day.”
* You know, now that I look at it, it has a slight homo-erotic feel. Or maybe that is just me.
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 435
 Saturday the MMC took a trip to Winnsboro to visit the South Carolina Railroad Museum. This weekend there was a visiting steam engine to give that old time feel (and smell) to your train ride. We combined the Club’s monthly breakfast with the train event, plus following the hour long train ride we drove to a nearby town for lunch making for almost a full day Miataness.
After lunch Donna and I went our separate ways from the group because we had an alternative agenda, that’s right, geocaching. Before leaving we made tentative dinner plans with another MMC couple to meet in Lexington at the Uno Chicago Grill at 5:30 to complete the Trifecta (all 3 meals out.)
Got all caught up chasing camo’d containers in the north central part of the state and ended up not being able to make it back to Lexington in time for pizza with Rudy & Patti. We were disappointed on two levels. With the dreary day and approaching of dusk we opted for the more direct way home from where we were and resigned ourselves to eat in Newberry at whatever place we could find. Luck was on our side though, willing to dine in a Hardee’s or a Subway, we stumbled on The Flying Pie on Main St and had a wonderful pizza about half way between the thin crust of West One in Hendersonville and the thick Chicago style pie in Lexington.
Saturday by the numbers:
299 — Miles driven on the day
98,000 — Total miles now on the Emperor
1 — Tank of gas used
5 — O’clock wake up call
14 — Hours from leaving home until returning
58° — High for the day, 20 below normal
9 — Cars in a line (7 Miatas, 1 Boxster and a Jeep)
11 — Mile train ride (5–1/2 under steam power)
100 — Pounds of coal burned by the train per mile traveled
8 — Caches found
3 — SC County Challenge caches and
2 — DeLorme Challenge pages finished
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 437
Sunday by the numbers:
8 — O’clock wake up call
1 — Trip to the end of the driveway to get the paper
0 — Hours away from home
3 — Meals eaten in
0 — Caches found
Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 437
 Because we burnt nearly the whole tank of gas on Saturday, the low fuel light came on on the way to work this morning. After dinner we headed over to Kroger to fill up do a little shopping. As we pulled in, the gas station was jammed, every pump had a car at it and every aisle had at least one car waiting. I suggested we go inside and buy the couple items we needed, then maybe the lines would die down. They didn’t.
I voted we just get in line and wait. She countered with, “Just go to the Shell on Price Ave. and pay the extra.” I don’t usually shop for price, but Kroger is usually 15–20 cents cheaper than the Shell station and I just hate to pay that much more. I actually hate waiting in line more than paying two bucks more for a tank of gas, so off to Price we go.
As the the gallon total flew past the 11 mark, simultaneously to my thinking to myself, man it was really empty, the sound of splashing and the smell of gas keyed me to reach down and manually shut off the pump. Perfect, not only am I paying 20¢ extra, I’m pouring it on the ground. The only possible thing that could make this worse would be if I have to go inside to get the receipt…
Bingo!
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 438
When we remodeled the bathrooms a year and a half ago we bought fancy new toilets and the nice nice lady at the plumbing supply house tossed in some Plain Jane seats for free. Well, you get what you pay for, the thin paint on the seats has allowed moisture to enter the wood and the undersides were starting to get ugly.
We went to Lowes the other day to buy new seats. There before us stood the giant wall of toilet seats ranging in price from $20 to $80. We eliminated half instantly because we needed oblong not round. Half again were eliminated when we dismissed ones costing more the $35. We further cut the nominees half again because they were painted wood. In the end we opted for the $20 one because it had the flatter top and touted it self as anti-bacterial or anti-fungal or anti-something.
To top it off, it is slow closing. Twenty bucks and it lowers itself slowly and magically down once you give it a gentle push. Isn’t modern science wonderful?
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 440
The plans for next year’s trip to New Mexico is in the very early nebulous state. One week or two? Fly or drive? Fly partway and drive in the middle? Drive the Miata or rent a car for the drive?
Plan A is to fly to Albuquerque for just a week and rent a car. Stumbling block number 1, but not a deal breaker, is you can’t rent a convertible there. Only one company, Budget, even listed one, but claims they are sold out. I can rent a convertible in Phoenix (465 miles away) for $560 a week or Denver (462 miles away) for $400 a week, heck we can rent one in Augusta, GA (1532 miles away), but that would mean a 2 week trip and the car rental would be $1,300.
You would think that New Mexico would be a great place for convertible rentals.
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 442
The other night as we sat in the Flying Pie in Newberry waiting for our pizza I was enjoying a song over their sound system and then the next one too. I hadn’t heard either tune before, but when they finished the DJ (do you still call them that?) mentioned the titles and that they were cover tunes. It was a satellite radio channel and we were in the middle of a Coffee Covers segment.
Usually if a song is real good, a cover of that song will be real good as well. It is pretty hard to ruin a great song (although most piped in grocery store music is the exception to this rule.) Sometimes the cover can be even better than the original, case in point, Gary Jules cover of a Tears For Fear song, Mad World from the Movie Donnie Darko or the Bangles cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s Hazy Shade of Winter.
The new Lincoln car commercials are using cover tunes to plug their new MKX. I kind of like the redo of The Church’s Under The Milky Way, but I’m not too sure about the Blue Oyster Cult Burnin’ For You redo.
Started down, went up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 445
1. This morning we stopped on the way to work to take some cash out of the ATM. Donna sat in the car, I walked up to the building and inserted my card into the machine. For every button I push on the ATM it emits a pleasant little beep.
Donna could hear some birds off to the right in a lie of hedges between the bank and a home. She also heard what she thought was a different bird coming from the big tree near the ATM where I stood.
Donna heard the birds on her right move over towards me and the other bird. At the same time, as I wound down my transaction, I heard a couple of very noisy birds so close that it sounded like they were in the ATM alcove with me.
The birds I heard were in the tree not the ATM alcove and the different bird she heard in the tree was my ATM button presses. So, did the beeping ATM talk those birds into moving from the hedge into the tree?
2. On our lunch time walk as we passed the car we could hear a crow in a tree in the pasture next to the plant, “Caw, caw. Caw, Caw.”
The Weather Channel was calling for a 30% chance of evening showers, so we had left the top down with the cockpit cover on, but the skies were now looking kind of dicey. As we walked, we discussed whether or not to just put the top up. I thought that it was probably going to be OK with it down as the clouds didn’t like like big rain producers, but I was not real certain.
As we neared the car on the way back, that same crow was still speaking loudly, “Caw Caw! Caw Caw!” It seemed like he was talking to us and it sounded like he was saying, “Top up! Top up!” So we put it up.
Started up, went down, went up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 449
We drove down to HHI last night because I have to do a little Hilton Head Condo Rentals web page updating. Some photos needed to be taken, units removed and dates updated. We will be meeting Donna the Condo Queen for dinner, but until then we are going to do some geocaching of course. We watched the beginnings of sunrise from the balcony of the condo we were staying in, then took a nice walk on the beach as the day began in earnest.
The sky over the water to the east was just awesome this morning:
If you looked to the opposite direction, you got another pretty good show, a double rainbow:
I’m cheating and posting a Saturday entry on Sunday because we didn’t have internet at the condo. The choice was between high speed net access or ocean front condo, a no brainer, ocean front wins every time…
Started up, went down, back up, down again, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 453
It is about 140 miles from HHI to Aiken and it usually takes a little over 3 hours to make the trip, but today it took us eight. No problems, unless you count 6 DNFs against just 4 Finds, but it was a bit longer than we had planned on spending on the road.
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 454
Veteran’s Memorial Park on Hilton Head Island
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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 454
We looked for 15 caches over the three days from Friday night to Sunday afternoon and found 8 bringing our total to 237 finds since 2/15/9. We missed 7 bringing our DNF total to 46 (which reminds me, I need to update the In Depth Statistics page.) Here are the logs from our most interesting misses:
Friday
“I Spy” #6 ~ A Fountain
We were on our way to the coast for the weekend and mapped out a few caches for along the way. Turns out around 5 PM on a Friday is a fairly busy time in this small town. As I was taking pictures of the surroundings and the wife was holding the GPSr letting it settle, an older model GM car pulled in abruptly near us and a gentleman hopped out.
Gesturing wildly as he approached and trying to get out a story about how he was stranded in Williston and had family in Aiken or vice versa (I think, his back country southern drawl was barely coherent) and could we help him out. I said, “Oh, we don’t carry cash.” And he tried his plea again. This time my wife pointed across the street towards a busy parking lot and said, “Why don’t you try over there?” He replied, “I don’t know anybody over there.” To which my wife responded, “You don’t know us either.” This logic so stunned him that he walked back to his car muttering and he drove over to the mentioned parking lot.
We took this opportunity to hightail it east out of town.
Saturday
Mitchellville Beach Park
We got to Stage 1, wrote down the numbers we needed and headed off blissfully following the arrow on the GPSr to Stage 2 passing a couple and their two dogs looking for shells on the way.
When we got about 60 feet away from Stage 2 the arrow pointed to the Public Use/CIA object mentioned in the description, but it was perpendicular to our path and while we could see the object in question, we couldn’t get there from where we were.
So we turned around headed back the way we came, passing Stage 1 again and also the dog couple who still had there heads down looking, making a beeline for Stage 2.
Solving for Stage 3 we subtracted a 1 instead of 3 for the first letter and that made made the GPSr point back over where we just came from. Back tracking again, passing Stage 1 and the heads down shell hunters for the third time. A 1/3 of a mile later the needle was now pointing, because of the approaching high tide, out into the water.
Rechecked our numbers and realized our mistake. Re-entered the correct coords and you can guess where they pointed, that’s right, back to where we were just a short time ago. I know this couple were dedicated to the business of hunting for shells because on the forth time by they still hadn’t looked up at us. By the Stage 1 sign once more and over to the spot where the final stage should have been.
We were led right to where there was a geopath through the under brush and we searched and searched and came up empty. I backed up about 75 feet let the GPSR settled and followed it right to a second swath through the underbrush lining the path about 15′ from the original spot. Both of us looked and looked and looked but couldn’t find any tupperware.
For something that advertised no bushwacking needed we sure didn’t find any spot that fit the bill, but we did find plenty of places that had been bushwacked.
Sunday
Cryptozoologist Taylor’s Nessie
We arrived early on a quiet Sunday morning and parked right next to Stage 1. Not more than 50′ away was a Ford Crown Victoria with stripes on the side and a light bar on the roof.
We stood there anyway, read the engraving on the stone monument and then did the cipherin’ to find the coordinates for Stage 2. When we plugged them in they pointed off in a direction that was behind some fencing whose gates were still closed.
We didn’t feel real comfortable hopping the fence and traipsing off across the dew covered grass with Johhny Law parked there, so we drove off.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 455
At one of our caching stops on Sunday we were in a patch of woods that had three of these jewel box spiders in large webs between trees. Made us make wide paths and hope against hope that we wouldn’t forget where the webs were in our hunt for the painted peanut butter jar.
Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 456
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 456
We took a half a day off from work and drove up to North Carolina to retrieve our extra sheets and towels from the SMH and do a little leaf peeping. Early on in the drive we noticed that in the lower elevations in SC there were quite a few trees already changed and a lot that already dropped their leaves. We both thought that this would mean that as we got into the mountains everything would be dull and empty, but boy were we wrong. Along I-26 in the upstate of SC the trees were in peak color and as we got into the higher elevations of NC they were still plenty colorful.
Now that we are here the weather has turned against us. In the beginning of the week it looked like rain so we were hesitant, but as the week progressed the fore cast looked better. Yesterday when we made the reservation the chance of rain on Saturday was down to 20%. It is actually misting and wet that we are here and if you check the forecast for tomorrow in the SC upstate they are calling for a 70% of rain.
We have several caches mapped out do to for our challenges in the morning on the way home, we will just have to see how it turns out in the morning. Rain we head straight home, misty we cache until damp, dry we rack ‘em up.
Started down, went up, back down, up again, down again, up once more, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 461
Just south of Abbeville on the way home from a washed out caching/leaf peeping trip the Emperor passed the ninety nine thousand mile mark. Right now he is backed into the garage with the door partway up and a light shining on the vampire teeth…
Started up, went down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 464
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