Year: 2012

Buoy Oh Buoy

Boy-o-boy. At one point the score was 102-22 and right now it is not too much better at 112-56. With the 6 of my players that have finished I have 55 points, with just two of my opponents players, Michael Vick and C.J. Spiller, he has 51 points. Add in any one of the other 5 players that have finished and I’d be trailing by a minimum of a touchdown. The predicted final score after tomorrow night’s game is 140-80. If I do end up with 80 I’ll consider myself lucky. The only reason I’ll be able to sleep at all tonight is that the score of another game stands at 116-54.

For my birthday I ordered a custom printed football jersey with my name on the back and everything. It is already in production, so it is too late to cancel it, but if the Purple Whales keep playing like this, I’ll have to think up a different Christmas gift…

Auto Matters

Last Sunday when we returned from our northeast trip, I parked the Purple Whale. Monday night I washed all the gunk off of it, that had accumulated in the 2,772.7 miles we drove it. Today was the first time we got back in it since then. The weather has been positively autumnal here, so we drove the Miata to work and home with the top down all week.

With nearly all of those trip miles on the highway, our average mileage for the trip was 32.6 MPG. We bought gas before we left and then again when we got back. On the trip we filled up 5 times and averaged $3.81 per gallon. Of those seven fill ups the cheapest was $3.21 here in Aiken and the most expensive was $4.10 in New York.

Kilt Friday


left to right: Cousin Susie, Cousin Duncan, Donna, Me, Cousin Jimmy, Cousin Laurie, Howard.

For several years now I have been wearing a Hawaiian shirt to work on Fridays. I have tried to convert members of my department and even folks throughout the rest of the plant with limited success. The number has varied from 2, Mark & I, to 4 to three and now it is back to just the two of us. Hawaiian Shirt Friday runs from sometime in May until Labor Day. After the first week in September folks break out their favorite college or pro football team gear.

Way back in June when I first saw this Bloomberg Businessweek article, Why Pixar Employees Wear Kilts on Fridays, I have teased both my boss and my wife that I would wear a kilt on Fridays.

When we visited the Scottish games in Virginia on vacation I went shopping. Yikes. Quality kilts start at a C-Note and go up. Then you need the belt, the Sorran, the high socks, the shoes, etc. Turns out it is a major investment and one I’m not willing to make just to raise a few eyebrows on Fridays.

The photo above was taken by a friend of Duncan’s with her smarty pants phone. There were 3 taken all told, but I like this one because if you look quickly I look like I’m wearing a kilt…

Heads Up

The western side of Monhegan is where the “town” is, as that is where the natural harbor is. It is also relatively flat. The center of the island rises up sharply from sea level to around 100′ and the houses thin out. The western portion of the island is all nature preserve, pine forest and rocky cliffs to the sea. From south to north:


Burnt Head (125′)


White Head (135′)


Little White Head (105′)

I missed taking a photo of the tallest cliff called Black Head because I was too busy scrambling up the rocky trails…

Artist’s Retreat

Monhegan has always been a haven for artists and artist’s workshops. While we were there, we stumbled onto this group several times at various locations around the island.

Foggy Morning On Monhegan

The morning we left started clear, but the fog soon swept in giving some mood to the island. Most people who visit Monhegan come for just a few hours via ferry from the mainland, so they don’t need a place to stay. But for those who come for an overnight or two, mainly stay in one of a couple places.


The largest and most visible spot is the Island Inn which has 32 rooms and is probably the first thing you see when pulling up to the dock.


The next most popular place is the Monhegan House with its 28 rooms. Both of these two spots serve breakfast to both those staying there and folks who walk in (like us.)


If you are staying longer the best option is a rental house that run from rustic to almost modern.


If you come by boat, you can always stay aboard. Not on one of these though as they are lobster boats owned by the local fishermaen. There was a small sailboat moored in the harbor this morning, I just didn’t take its portrait.

Two Options


Monhegan Island Lighthouse

Late afternoon as I sat in my chair in front of the computer screen I could feel myself getting sleepy, I could use a little caffeine. I had two options, bottle of Coca-Cola or a cup of coffee. The Coke was to much fluid with too little caffeine, so coffee it will be. Now I had two more options, coffee from the machine for a quarter or a 50¢ premium cup of joe from the Keurig in the mail room. I thought it would be nice to go for the slightly better K-cup coffee. This created still another set of two options, I could get change for a buck to pay for the coffee or I could just stiff the company as the Keurig setup is on the honor system.

I’m too honest for my own good sometimes, so I headed to the change machine in the cafeteria. I selected my crispest dollar bill because sometimes these machine can be finicky. I feed it in and it got spit back out. I unfolded the 1/16″ turned down corner and tried again. It came back. I swapped which end of the bill that went in first and it came right back out again. I decided to try a different bill, one slightly more wrinkled, the machine clunked and whirred and sounded like it was going to work. It did. A shiny gold dollar coin dropped into the output dish. WTF!

I had two options, I could go get 4 quarters from accounting for the dollar coin to get that cup of coffee or I could forget about the whole thing and go back to my desk. I went back to my desk, as I was now wide awake after my walk up front and failed attempt to get a couple of quarters.