Last of the Cities

City - Appleton, SC

On our way down to Hilton Head on Friday we made an effort to find a sign for Almeda which was shown on the official South Carolina transportation map. It shows at the point where SC-68 starts going east and US-278 veers south, but when we stayed on 278 there was nothing. On the way back we made sure to come west on SC-68 to meet up with US-278 just in case we missed something, but we hadn’t. No sign. Which was not surprising because there really wasn’t anything that resembled a structure. Probably was something here a long time ago and the map makers just keep putting it on the map without checking.

On our way down to Hilton Head on Friday we drove slowly through Allendale looking for a nice sign to get for our “A” city. Nothing really popped out at us. The farmer’s market sign was close, but it was mostly obscured by bushes and there didn’t look like any place to park. There were plenty of Allendale County buildings that caught our eye, but counties were done, we needed the city. On the way back I asked Donna to ask the GPS to lead us to the Allendale City Hall, but it didn’t have that particular POI. So I said just select the city option and let’s see where it takes us. The GPS lead us down a road we hadn’t been on, but when it said arrived there was nothing there, literally. It was an empty lot. I made a left to make another to get back on our route home when we found a trailer with a wood sign out front that read Allendale Police Department. There weren’t any LEO vehicles around so I’m hoping it was the old police station because it really did look deserted. We took a couple photos anyway.

On the way back after we had past through Allendale, Donna, looking at the SC map, said, “Hey there is a small dot labeled Appleton just 5 miles ahead.” We had traveled this route a bunch of times before and I didn’t remember any Appleton, so I said, “I bet there is no sign, it is going to be another Almeda.” I was wrong. I was wrong.

Motoring Challenge Points 1, Approx Miles Driven 150
Totals So Far: 163 points & 9110 miles

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 127

Saturday Sunset

Sunset

We’ve got a bunch of sunrise pictures from the balcony of condo B-327 in the Hilton Head Beach & Tennis Resort because it faces east, but today when the sun went down the horizon turned pinkish like the start of a sunrise, even though it was setting about 150° away.

Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean (Outtake)

This is the picture I’m not using of the two taken for the Destination – Ocean (Atlantic). From the 3rd floor stairs of the Admiral’s Row building on the Hilton Head Beach & Tennis Resort.

Motoring Challenge Points 3, Approx Miles Driven 150
Totals So Far: 162 points & 8960 miles

Started down, went up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 126

3,270 to 1

Unless of course you have just stepped through the stones at Craigh na Dun and arrived from the 18th century, you’ll know that there is a new Starwars movie coming out on Friday. I wanted to prepare for this by watching the prequels and the original trilogy all over again, even though the odds of my going to the theater to see the new movie were fairly high, say on the order of the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field.

Seeing as I am old enough to have seen the original 3 in the movie theater these are my favorites. But not only do I prefer the Episodes IV, V & VI to the prequels, I’d prefer Episodes I, II & III didn’t even exist. I’ve seen them because I am a fan, but…

In which order should I watch them in? Episode order or release order? I found the answer to that question where all the answers are, the internet. Watch IV & V, then go back and watch II, III. Finish with Episode VI: Revenge Return of the Jedi – The Machete Order.

That blog post is pretty long winded and because of how I prefer the Episodes IV, V & VI I was sorely tempted to take the advice in the very beginning and just go with the Original Trilogy and be done with it and I did indeed seek out Harmy’s Despecialized Editions, but I did want to try and see if I could watch some of the prequel material too.

Another internet article I found held some promise of me being able to incorporate the Prequels – The Anti-Cheese Edits. These can be found on YouTube which make them easily watchable on your internet connected Smart TV.

Donna and I watched Episode IV: A New Hope on Thanksgiving. At Blu-Ray definition on the big TV in the living room the movie as probably better looking than it was when we saw in a movie theater on Guam 38 years ago. I watched Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back on the 25″ computer monitor in on my own last weekend. Last night I tried to watch the anti-cheese Episode I and even without the cheese I only made it 20 minutes into the now shorted to 1:33 minute movie.

This weekend I may try Episode II: Attack of the Clones. If I don’t make it through that, I guess I’ll just jump to the last of the Original Trilogy and be done with it.

Feel the Bern

I’m not sure how I got there now, but somehow I followed a link and watched the second of the six parts of this conversation. Then I went back and watched the first part. Then I watched the rest. Apparently I’m Bernie’s choir because he was preaching to me, right to me. Does he have a chance in getting elected? No, probably not (and they touch on that in the first few minutes of the third part), but he should be.

Talking Shop w/ Bernie Sanders

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 123

Everything Comes In Threes

Friday before last when we rode the tandem to work I had to add a bit more air to the front tire than the normal touch up after a week or two of inactivity. So this Thursday night I checked to see what the air pressure was and sure enough it was low. So I pulled the tube, found a small leak and patched it. The patched tube became our spare and I put a new tube back in the front tire.

On the way home from work on Friday a couple miles from home we hit a big piece of gravel with the front tire in just the wrong way in that it snapped up, poked through the sidewall and punctured the tube. Hss, hsss, hsssss. No problem, we always carry the stuff needed to fix a flat. Unsnap the front panniers, back the whole front quick release out and remove the wheel. I pull the tube and place the recently patched one back in.

To pump it up we have one of those CO2 cartridge things where you tighten the bottom into the top to puncture the cartridge. Well, I twist it a couple times and then it gets too hard to turn. I back it off and try again. This time I force it so much that I strip the plastic threads. Crap. Fortunately we also carry one of those collapsible 4 section pumps too. After about a 100 strokes I get enough air in the tire to limp home.

Thursday night I dropped Donna off at the home of a co-worker’s house for the ASCO Ladies Christmas party. On the way back home I noticed that the low tire pressure light was on. I figured it was a 3 p.s.i. air loss, just enough to trigger the light, that seems to happen annually around this time of year. Today I broke out my little garage air compressor and started filling tires. Left rear, down 3 p.s.i to 32. Left front down 3 to 32. Right front down 3 to 32. Right rear, down 8 to to 27. Huh? As I go to attache the chuck, right there at eye level, I see a nail sticking out about an inch, right at the radius as the the sidewall transitions to the tread. Right at a place that represents new tire not plug & patch.

A Variation On The Elf On The Shelf

A Variation On The Elf On The Shelf

Back in February when I needed to replace one of the Emperor’s 02 sensors I bought it and the wrench I needed to change it online. The sensor showed up, but the wrench was back ordered, so I went down to the local Advanced Auto and bought one to do the job with. Naturally the online wrench arrived a couple days after I finished the job. I couldn’t return the used one locally and I didn’t feel like spending the $5 to return the online wrench just to get $6 back, so now I have two of the same wrenches that I might not ever have to use again.

A couple times during the year I thought that maybe I’d just give one away as a “Door Prize” to an attendee to one of my MMC led events, but never did. Well it is now towards the end of the year and the MMC Christmas Party was coming up, maybe I’ll just wrap it up and put it under the “tree” for Ol’ Swapperoo Gift Exchange.

Then a couple of weeks ago I overheard my cubical neighbor telling another co-worker about his experience with The Elf On The Shelf and his 3-year old twins. I had heard of The Elf On The Shelf before, but never knew what it was all about. So rather than let on that I was ignorant of the subject, I Googled it. WOW! There is a whole subset of America’s mommies that are The Elf On The Shelf disciples and are not afraid to swap stories and activities and tips on how to make this “fun” for the month of December. This is where I discovered that some folks, that now knew what TEOTS was about, but didn’t feel like spending the money on the book and the official elf doll and could just make their own. A light bulb figuratively illuminated over my head at this point, I’d turn the extra wrench into a automotively themed TEOTS.

What followed was a weeks worth of some fun and some frustration for me and mostly frustration for Donna as we perused local stores scanning shelves for the ingredients for my MMC Christmas present. I already had some red paint for the wrench/body, but needed a small Santa hat, a styrofoam ball for the head, red pipe cleaners for arms and legs and some colored felt for the hands, feet, etc. Then we needed just the right size plain box to put him in. Just when finding all the required pieces proved too elusive we got lucky in Hobby Lobby when we found a $6 elf ornament for half price.

The right box was still missing. Google to the rescue again, the 6th link down for DIY Gift Boxes led to a hexagonal shaped box that I could scale to fit. What better style box for a wrench could there be?

Fearing a copyright infringement lawsuit I couldn’t call it The Elf On The Shelf, so in keeping with the car theme called it The Wrench On The Bench. I photoshopped an homage to the actual TEOTS book cover and now I just needed to put something on the inside to tell the story of TWOTB. Hoping to find a passage or two from the real book to inspire a new story once again I turned to Google. No actual words from the book, but I did find a poem on lil’ luna that got me going enough to hack something just long enough to go on the inside of the hex box cover:

How does Santa know who’s naughty or Nice?
The Wrench on the Bench sits in your garage
Watching if what you do is wrong or right
And reports back to the North Pole every night.

Harbor freight junk from Ol’ Saint Nick
Is going to be under your tree if,
You crawl under a car without jack stands, or,
Use pliers when a 6-point socket is called for.

Santa will make sure it is presents you’ll get
If you always consult your Chilton or Haynes,
Use a torque wrench instead of a guess
And at every 3,000 miles your motor oil is fresh.

There are only two rules for the Wrench on the Bench;
1. Never touch the Wrench on the Bench or it will be gone forever.
2. The Wrench on the Bench needs a name that is clever, but not Murphy, not never.