Year: 2003

Praise The Lord, But Get The Hell Out Of My Way

For the last couple of months my wife and I have been meeting a few of our fellow Aiken Bicycle Club members for an early morning ride on Sundays. We have been riding more or less 25 miles by picking a loop from the Club’s inventory of past and present Spring Century rides. It is a small group of 4 to 6 riders of around the same abilities and inclinations so no one is dropped and forgotten about, nor is anyone riding at half speed so as not to get too far ahead. The ride is always fun and a nice work out, plus we are home early enough, around 9:30, so as to still have the whole day left for other things.

Start time is at 7:30 for a couple of reasons. One, it is summer in South Carolina and the heat and humidity make later in the day rides unpleasant at best. And two, traffic is very light at the time of day on weekends. The routes take us on a variety of roads in the lighter populated areas of the county, but in the last 1/2 hour of the ride no matter where we are, car traffic picks up. And these are usually the most rude and impatient drivers. They pass us on two lane roads when there is oncoming traffic and/or as close as possible to us.

The strange thing about these folks is they are all dressed very nicely, obviously on their way to church. I’m a non-attendee of church, so I don’t know why they would endanger our lives, their lives and those of the poor unsuspecting occupants in the other car just to ensure they get a good pew. My recollection of Christian beliefs is not so hazy that I wouldn’t have remembered that being late for church was a sin.

Nothing Important Happened Today

Carl Wormus drinks alone at a bar in Baltimore, MD. He notices a dark-haired woman in a low-cut dress walk in, and he approaches her. They get into a discussion about the ice in his drink. As a water expert, he knows that the government-added Chloramine in the water is actually not as healthy as has been reported. Intrigued, the woman entices him into leaving, and they drive off in his convertible. He slows down at an opening drawbridge, but the woman clamps down on his right leg, forcing his foot on the accelerator. The car flies off the open bridge and plunges into the Potomac River. Deep underwater, Wormus wiggles out of his seatbelt and begins to swim to the surface. The woman is lifeless next to him. Suddenly, the woman opens her eyes, grabs his ankle and pulls him deeper under the water.
Episode 9×01 of the X-Files. It was a two-parter that guest starred Lucy Lawless of Xena: Warrior Princess fame, that featured her as nude as you can get on network television.

This has nothing to do with my day, except that the title of that episode and the title of today’s post are the same.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1082.91
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 199

Equal Time?

TBS the Superstation is showing “Terminator” this afternoon. Does this mean that they have to grant equal access time to the other 150 odd (and I do mean odd) candidates? Or did they black out California? Nick at Night will have to stop showing “Different Strokes” re-runs, Comedy Central will have to snip out the Father Guido Sarducci bits in the SNL shows and we probably won’t see the Woody Harrelson flick “The People vs. Larry Flint” for a couple of months either.

Deep Throat is scheduled tonight on X-Files at the Bogarduses.

1/24 Scale

Today the car got a much needed wash and vacuum, plus a shoeshine (some Meguiar’s Endurance Tire Goo.) It needs a waxing, but I didn’t have the time.

This afternoon was a Master’s Miata Club get-together. We hung at a Baskin-Robbins for a while before heading over to the Evans Dinner for chow. After that a few of us headed over to one couple’s house to chat some more. While we were there they said did I want to buy one of the die-cast Miatas that they found over at KB Toys. There were only three left @ $6.99 instead of $9.99 so they bought all 3 of them. John has a red so he kept that one, but he had 2 blue ones left over. Seeing as mine is blue I bought one from him. It is not the exact same blue, but it is still cool. The doors, hood & trunk opens and the steering wheel turns the front wheels. Now all I have to do is make up some 1/24 scale Alley Gator teeth.

After the Miata event we went over to the Augusta Mall as it was close by. The only store that was a possible was Sears, so that was the only place we checked and got the same negative results.

From there we returned to Aiken and hit our Target and Sears and received 2 more noes. In each of these places we shopped I looked at everything they had on display and then asked a sales person if they had the camera in the back, nothing. Including my negative answer from the local camera store when I called them on Friday, I have come up empty handed in 10 places locally.

Hi-ho, hi-ho, to the net we go. Because TheNerds.net is not a dedicated camera store, but a computer store that also sells electronic goodies I hope to avoid a repeat of Will’s digicam online shopping experience.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1082.91
Started down went up, went down, up, down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 199

I Hope I’m Not Too Late!

Dang. I’m really jonesin on the Olympus D-40 Zoom camera. Dell had it early this week for $369, now today when I get the go ahead to buy the camera Dell doesn’t even show in inventory any more.

Now the only place left on the net with a semi-recognizable name is TheNerds.net (well maybe not recognizable to you, but I’ve bought stuff from them in the past and have been satisfied) and their price is $398 plus $18 for shipping. They have ten left. I hope they don’t sell them all until after I get home from shopping the local chain stores tomorrow.

Crooked Sticker Dealer

The local Honda dealer bills himself as “Your Straight Talk Dealer.” Apparently the straight refers to just the talk. Tonight coming home from the Master’s Miata Club meeting we were behind a new Accord recently purchased there and the 3 x 5 inch sticker telling me where he bought the car with the words Straight Talk in bold was plastered on under the left tail light at about 5% off from level.

JOHHNY HATES JAZZ

Well, not really hate, more like aversion.

For some reason, the local SC NPR station has changed into “Your NPR News Station” from “Your Classical NPR News Station.” Doesn’t sound like that big of a change, but to me it was. I now have lost a big part of my workday background music. I used to record Echoes every night from 10 to midnight in MP3 format and take into work on my little thumbdrive. But no more, they have replaced Echoes with Carolina Jazz. First in September I lost Thistle & Shamrock on Saturday evenings, now this. Those folks can just forget about my pledge this year.