Year: 2007

A Day At The Beach

Sarah, a widowed Jewish lady, was sunbathing on a beach at Boca Raton, Florida. She looked up and noticed that a man her age had walked up, placed his blanket on the sand next to hers and began reading a book.

Smiling, she attempted to strike up a conversation with him. “Hello, sir, how are you today?” “Fine, thank you,” he responded, and turned back to his book.

“I love the beach. Do you come here often?” she asked. “First time since my wife passed away 2 years ago,” he replied and turned back to his book.

“I’m sorry to hear that. My husband passed away 3 years ago and it is very lonely. Do you live around here?” she asked. “Yes, I live over in Suntree,” he answered, and again resumed reading.

Trying to find a topic of common interest, Sarah persisted. “Do you like pussycats?” With that, the man dropped his book, jumped off his blanket and on to her, tore off her swimsuit and gave her the most passionate ride of her life!

When the cloud of sand began to settle, Sarah gasped and asked the man, “How did you know that was what I wanted?” The man replied, “How did you know my name was Katz?”

My Sentiments Exactly

Finished Spenser book number thirty-five tonight. There were no new Crime Buster Rules in this volume, but I did find out that his feelings for turnovers is exactly like my feelings for pizza:

I finished my turnover. It wasn’t a very good turnover. But the worst turnover I’d ever eaten was excellent. And this one was far from the worst.

The eight new Post Office photos are up on Flickr! and the old school gallery here, but there are no captions yet. This latest set of photos have a cameo appearance by the Emperor’s Mini-Me and the photographer and his navigator.

We are planning a a trip for more Post Office photos this weekend, either Turkey Day or Sunday, depending on which one has better weather. Right now it is a tossup as both days are calling for a 40% chance of rain. Right now we are at 327 out of 461 – 71% complete.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 482

Auto Focus?

FuzzyDid ya know that pointing your camera directly at the sun can make it go all out of focus? Neither did I, until yesterday. I kind of like the effect, even if it does look like I forgot to focus. That’s the Hardeeville Post Office if you are curious. Worked fine for the sunrise…

Never did walk on the beach this weekend. Jaded?

Got up this morning and drove right home. There are no more post offices that could be remotely considered on the way anymore.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 482

70,000 Sunrises

Sunrise Which is over 191 years worth, neither I nor the condo balcony I was standing on when I took this photo will ever see that total, the Emperor won’t make that many either, but it had traveled over that number in miles by late this afternoon.

Donna and I went to bed around 9:30 last night so we were up at the crack of dawn, literally. After breakfast we postponed our usual walk on the beach because it was quite chilly and windy. Instead we hopped in the car and drove to Bluffton, Hardeeville and Ridgeland to take Post Office Portraits. Our little loop brought us back to HHI where we ponied up the $5 for a day pass to nab the missing Harbortown branch PO on the Sea Pines Plantation.

Along the way we made several stops, ostensively to shop for the few remaining folks on our Christmas list, but I think Donna and I made out better than anyone. Our last stop was a used book store near the entrance to Sea Pines where we both got a couple of hardcovers to read. One of the ones I got was the latest Robert B. Parker Spenser novel which some one had just brought in today.

Right next door to the shopping center the bookstore was in was a Sticky Fingers restaurant. The one in Augusta had catered a lunch at ASCO when we had some visitors in and those who had the food said it was good. Being lunchtime Donna and I, let the car sit and walked the 100 feet over. It was 12:30 on a Saturday and there were two cars in the parking lot. Both in the back. One cook and one waitress? I was a little hesitant to eat at a place were we were the only customers, but it was a chain, so it couldn’t possibly be awful. It wasn’t. We split a lunch combo plate which consisted of 2 big ribs, a pulled pork sandwich, some beans and some slaw. Everything was tasty except for the slaw which was bland which means we would, if the opportunity strikes again, eat at a Sticky Fingers again.

Late afternoon found us at Donna Horsman’s house for some grilled chicken, roasted new potatoes, green beans and salad. We hadn’t seen Donna since attending Jerry’s memorial service back in May. She, with the help of her daughter, has continued to manage the 18 condos at the Beach & Tennis Resort and will for at least one more year. I think it helps keep her busy and mind off the loss of Jerry the Condo King. I guess I’ll have to start referring to Donna as the Condo Queen and Lisa can get the “title” of Condo Princess.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 481

Internet Withdrawal

Hot TatersTonight we are relaxing in Unit B-327 of the Hilton Head Beach and Tennis Resort. If the sun was still up we would have a great view of the beach, but it is 8:00 PM in November and pretty much all we can see is the blue glow of the largest swimming pool on the island. There are over 50 crystal clear cable channels to choose from, but no Internet access. What? Whatever will I do? Blog to a text file and upload it a day late from a hot spot somewhere on the island.

On our way down we took the scenic, AKA long, way here and picked up 4 Post Offices. First stop was a return trip to Ehrhardt. The first time we attempted the PO in this town a festival filling the main street and blocking access to the place thwarted us. This afternoon worked out great as I got to park right up front and the sun even cooperated in being behind me. Next were two (out of the three total) Walterboro Post Offices we had left to do. The first time in town we got the main downtown PO easy, but a big wreck on I-95 prevented any attempt on these northern two. One is a little country store in Canadys where not only can you mail a package, but you can feast on hot taters and chicken or buy bait and tackle. As far as the USPS is concerned this is a Walterboro Post Office with a zip code of 29488-5753, but the defiant sign outside the Penny Pincher Mart says it is the Post Office for Canadys, SC 29433. We somehow missed the Jacksonboro Post Office (could have been the vague Google map), but did manage to find our way to Green Pond.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 479

You Get What You Pay For

The DC adapter for the Dell Laptop started to go wonky about a month ago. The cable near the plug was breaking internally from all the hanging it does off the back of the computer. I worked around it for a while, but it got tiring trying to prop it just so that the wires inside touched and it didn’t run down the battery.

I checked the Dell site for a replacement and they wanted $69.99 + S&H for the adapter. Yikes! Hunted around the web for a generic replacement. I found a few places and decided on Ebatts.com. They had a unit, the AC-C10, for $39.47 with the shipping included (must have been on special as they want $52.95 for it tonight.) Ordered it on the 31st of October and got it November 6th, UPS ground from California.

The cords were as long as the OEM unit, but the whole thing was a lot lighter, probably mostly in the wall cord. The Dell unit has a 3-prong plug and the Ebatts unit has only two, which is an advantage in my 50 year-old house with almost zero grounded outlets. Another nice feature is it has a 90-degree angled plug for the back of the laptop which should eliminate the broken cord syndrome I had from repeated bending in between the plug and fuse block thingie.

Things were all wine and roses until last night when the battery stopped charging and the task tray icon reported time remaining as 100 times longer than it should be for my then dwindling battery power (98% 2830.57 hours remaining.) Huh? Unplugged the adapter and re-plugged it in, still the same. Ran the computer on battery for a while before shutting it off and going to bed.

Tonight when I got home from work, I started up the laptop, it said I had 53% battery with 1430.66 hours remaining. Went into the garage and got out my old Radio Shack Multimeter (it still has a needle and several scales to read from) to check the adapter. Fifteen volts. Returned to the garage and got the old AC adapter to check it, 19 volts, that’s probably the problem. Wonder if the voltage was higher when I first got the generic unit and it went bad in 9 days?

Logged onto Ebatts.com and filled out the form to return the unit for a refund. There was a place to select Check and Replace, but opted for a refund because I’m sure they think that the unit is OK as it is listed as a 15-20v part and it is putting out 15v.

With the new cord no good, I decided to try and repair the old cord. Cut, trimmed, spliced and soldered, not very pretty like, then wrapped it in duct tape. Hey, dont’ laugh, it works (for now.

Might as well break down and buy the Dell branded unit, after all, that $69.99 doesn’t look too bad compared to the $52.95 for the who knows if it’ll work Ebatts part.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 477

Wednesday Wasteland

HDR Sharon, SC Post Office

My first atempt at an HDR image. Because I only had two exposures, not necessarily shot with this process in mind, and one was really washed out (more of an accidental wrong exposure) there is no detail in the sky. I’m sure things will improve when I shoot 3 exposures 2 stops apart either way from normal with the camera on a tripod.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 476