Poor Puppies

We bought the local paper this morning and Donna pointed out this little bit in the paper’s Talkback section:

Dog Park
The dog park is great, although some safety concerns should be addressed. The metal posts should be wrapped to protect puppies from colliding into them. The sides of the pool are extremely rough and can harm dogs that try to exit the pool from the sides.

At first I thought it might be some sort of joke, but then I remembered just how deeply involved people can get with their pets. But I just couldn’t resist making light of the matter. I hit the reply link which popped up an email window and I wrote:

RE: Dog Park Safety Concerns
Perhaps dogs using the park should be required to wear helmets and protective padding like the folks who use the Skate Park behind the Odell Weeks Center.

About 30 minutes later I got an undeliverable email back. Figuring maybe the paper has something against gmail addresses when I got home I tried again. A short time later:

Failed to deliver to ‘talkback@aikenstandard.com’
SMTP module(domain @10.10.10.57|aikenstandard.com) reports:
host mail.global.frontbridge.com says:
550 5.4.1 talkback@aikenstandard.com: Recipient address rejected: Access Denied

Nice, you can’t talk back to Talkback…

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RAM Tough?

Last Monday on our way home from work were got stuck behind a shiny silver RAM Heavy Duty Dually. It was 3-1/2 tons of 4×4 manliness. There was testosterone condensate dripping from the 5″ diameter tailpipe that was connected to a 6.7 litter diesel with 650 ft/lbs of torque giving it towing capacity to move small Caribbean islands. The 8′ bed would hold a Miata and it had the load capacity large enough that it could carry two in there with no sweat.

As we traveled down Powderhouse Rd behind this behemoth, it seemed to be having trouble staying in the lane (to be fair, the truck was so wide it didn’t have far to go) and we figured it was because of the usual reason, talking on a cell phone. After watching several of these quick zig-zags there came a particularly harsh swerve that took the outside right tire off the road into the dirt we realized what was going on. The driver of this super truck was dodging the 1/4 to 3/4 inch drops associated with manholes covers on resurfaced roads.

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I Bet They Were Beautiful Last Week


Hey! Weren’t You Just Here Two Weeks Ago?

Why yes, we were.

Today was our annual trip to the mountains with the MMC to view the fall colors. When I emailed a reminder to the membership, I remarked that Donna and I reserved the right to cancel the event if there weren’t at least two other cars going on the trip. So guess how many showed up? Right, two. Should have picked a larger number. A couple in one of the cars had never been to see the Georgia Guidestones, so we just had to stop.

We had a route planned that went north and west in Georgia ending up in Walhalla, SC for lunch before turning around and returning south and east in South Carolina. Trouble with the plan was that we had too much time built in for rest breaks (it probably would have been just right if we had twice as many cars and the temperatures had been 15° warmer like they were supposed to be), so when we got to I-85 and about 20 minutes from Martha’s Marketplace Cafe, it was only 10:30 AM. An adjustment was made to the route that was to take us on a loop northwest to Franklin, NC before coming back into Walhalla.

We were now in the mountains and the fall colors were nice, but noticeably past peak. At a break in Clayton, GA with traffic on four lane US441 heavy, the clock past noon and the distinct possibility that the scenery would not improve we made another adjustment to the route. Someone pointed at the GA map and said, “What’s that little gray line heading due east towards SC and route 28?” GPS’s and Smarty Pants phones were consulted and it was called Warwoman Rd. I said, “Let’s go. I’ve heard Miata.net chatter about that road. And it was good.” No one complained about the lack of fall color on this stretch of the trip. As one driver put it later, “All I saw was a white line on my right and a double yellow line on my left.” Once we got back in South Carolina on Rte. 28 we hit a sweet spot of altitude and chlorophyll-less-ness making the show out the side windows quite nice for about 15 miles or so.

Lunch in Walhalla at the Brian & Donna Pre-Approved Dining Spot was very good. The only negative was the service was slow, but I got the feeling that everything that happens in Walhalla happens slow. The trip home was uneventful and because we traveled about 50 miles less than we normally do on one of these excursions we got home in daylight and at a decent time for dinner at home.

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114,000 Grains Of Rice

Tonight’s meeting of the MMC was hopefully the last at Little Mexico for a long time. When the President picked this place he had good intentions as it fit the requirements we were looking for in a “permanent” home for our meeting, i.e. central location and visibility of the parking lot from a high traffic street. Trouble was the food is Grade B Mexican, but it was only envisioned as a meeting place with sharing of a couple of hors d’oeuvres over business chat and unfortunately (or fortunately depending which side of the plan you were on) the drive to a restaurant for dinner after the meeting thing never caught on.

Donna had a chicken quesadilla and I had a carnitas dinner in which the pork was fattier and somehow drier than what we normally get at our local Mexican place. Along with the meat and tortillas it came with pico de gallo, refried beans and about 114,000 grains of “spanish” rice. Which is coincidentally, the mileage achievement the Emperor passed on the way there.

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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 879

No Longer California Dreamin’

I rarely speak of politics here, even around election time, but this year is an exception because I actually voted in a mid-term election. Usually only picking the Grand Poobah will make me leave my cave and high speed internet connection to mingle with the masses, but this year there was a local issue that I wanted to put my 2¢ into (literally.)

I had high hopes for being able to pick California as the state I wanted to retire in, but my hopes were quashed when the voters there defeated Prop. 19. Oh, well, there are 4 or 5 more elections between now and then. Also as a geocacher I was disappointed that the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco have banned giving away toys with “unhealthy meals.” Most of the cool schwag that I have found in ammo cans came from a kids meal at a fast food restaurant.

Closer to home South Carolina voted in its usual Republican manner and in doing so elected the state’s first woman Govenor (welcome to the 20th century SC) and defeated in the US Senate race, my favorite crackpot candidate, Alvin Greene. But the defeat was actually a victory of sorts, Alvin’s got a new job as a crackpot commentator on of all places, Fox News.

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Now We’re Talking


I wonder just how much this Hyundai Sonata would set me back?

RIDES Magazine & Hyundai (if I’m going to buy one, someday I’m going to have to learn how to spell that right the first time) have teamed up to showcase the new turbo’d Sonata at SEMA. Sure looks good, but I’m betting that the Sonata that might end up in our driveway isn’t going to look much like that. A guy can dream though. Details and more photos available on AutoBlog.

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SC County Challenge Completed


Nature Trail in Boyd Pond Park

After countless miles and countless hours of crisscrossing the state of South Carolina finding a geocache in each and every county we took a short 1/2 mile hike in Boyd Pond Park, which is less than 7 miles from home, to grab the Challenge’s bonus cache. We also found 4 others and DNF’d one while we were out & about.

You know, if we were smart, we would start seriously working on the Georgia DeLorme Challenge (we have 14 of 60 already) and Georgia County Challenge (16 of 159) as we do the 42 state parks…

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