Year: 2012

Fuelly

I’ve been keeping track of the Sonata’s mileage on Fuelly since January. I have recorded 35 fill ups in that time frame and have averaged 29.7 MPG. Some other fun stats include: $3.29 Avg. Price/Gallon, $44.94 Avg. Price/Fuel-up, $0.111 Avg. Price/Mile and $1,572.88 Total Spent on gas. The last couple of times we’ve filled up the Miata I’ve been checking the MPG figure and it has been pretty darn good too, so tonight I added it to my “garage” on Fuelly.

You can now see the average MPG for both cars in the left sidebar. Odd coincidence, after the one fill up the Emperor’s figure exactly matched the Purple Whale’s 35 fill up figure of 29.7. The EPA says the Sonata should get 22 city and 35 highway while the Miata was rated at 22 city, 28 highway, so I expect the Miata’s average to drop some as time goes on.

Free Identity Theft Protection For Everyone

The South Carolina Department of Revenue’s database was hacked into by some Russians (see I told you they were awesome hackers.) So if you filed an income tax form in the state in the last 4 years someone, and more than likely more than one someone, now has your Social Security Number and or your credit card number. 3.6 million Social Security numbers and 387,000 credit card numbers are on the loose, meaning that many folks are at risk for Identity Theft and maybe some shopping done with their credit cards.

The breaches in the SCDoR computers occurred back in August and they didn’t know it until October 10th. They fixed the problem by the 20th and then the public was told about on the 26th. I bet the only reason we found out at all was that some newspaper or TV station got the info and the State had to go public.

To help ease the minds of 3.6 million taxpayers the state is going to provide 1 year of Identity Theft Protection from Experian (ProtectMyID.com) for free. Let’s see, how is that going to work, the state is funding the program, the state gets its funds from the taxpayers like me, so I’m really paying for my own ID Theft Protection. Not only will I be paying for my own, but I’ll be paying for a whole bunch of others folks as well, here is why.

It was announced that to get the theft protection you needed to call a toll free number to get an activation code. Go ahead and try to call a toll free number around the same time 3.599999 million other people do and what do you think will happen, that’s right, a busy signal. They announced that they were adding more operators and now instead of a busy signal people were getting a recording saying call back later because they were experiencing a higher than normal call load! Duh!

Yesterday I was going to try and give the number a call, so I did a Google search to find out what it was and I landed on a Columbia TV station’s webpage that had the number. They also gave out the code that you got when, or if, you finally got through to the number: SCDOR123. Not anything special that proved you were one of the 3.6 million, just a code, SCDOR123, that sounds like the director of the South Carolina Department of Revenue’s secret password (and maybe that is what got us into this whole situation to begin with.)

Because they are not checking to actually see if you might have been affected by the hacking before giving out a code to sign up for protection, any Tom, Dick or Harry from anywhere can sign up with the code of SCDOR123. So now the state, and by extension me, will probably have to foot the ID Protection bill for over 20 million folks. If you would like a year’s worth of free ID Theft Protection just go to http://www.protectmyid.com/scdor and enter the code SCDOR123.

You’re welcome.

Oh Yeah, That Makes Up For It Alright

In Saturday’s mail there was a letter for me and the return address read Red Sox Nation. “Oh,” I thought, “Maybe this is a refund.”

Inside was a letter with as close as an apology as anyone would get “Thank you for being a part of the Red Sox Nation program. While it was a challenging season for all of us, the continued devotion and passion make Red Sox Nation unparalleled in sports.” Also enclosed was a Johnny Pesky replica baseball card, a 2012 Red Sox Nation sticker1 and the ability to download a couple dozen photo highlights2 from this season.

Oh yeah, that makes up for it alright.

1. There has been one of these every year until this year when it was replaced by a nifty Fenway Park 100 Years sticker.
2. Some might say that that is all the highlights they had this season.

Leaf Blower

The 10 year old leaf blower is getting awfully hard to start, half dozen pulls minimum and my gas line repair is now spouting fuel around the tank hole when I press the little bulb thing. Its noise level is an assault on the ears, so much so that I wear ear plugs and Donna has to be in the opposite yard from me when I use it. Time to replace it.

Earlier this year we bought a battery operated Black & Decker string trimmer & hedge trimmer. They work pretty well, so I thought maybe we could get the B&D leaf blower that uses the same 18v batteries. It would be quiet and light with no dripping flammable fluids. I read the reviews online and the biggest negatives about the unit were it was kind of weak and used up batteries.

Weak might be OK because all I would be using it for would be blowing off leaves and grass clippings from the back deck, the front sidewalk and the driveway. Batteries shouldn’t be an issue as I already have 3, one came with the string trimmer and one plus a bonus came with the hedge trimmer. Home Depot had some in stock and at $75 worth a trip right after work.

Boy was the box small. It fit in the Miata trunk along with both our lunch boxes and Donna’s purse. When I got home I snapped on the the two tubes and plugged up one of my already charged batteries. I started with the back deck and it seemed like I was cruising along blowing leaves everywhere, but it was having trouble moving the acorns around. The battery was drained by the time I was done with the deck. Hooked up battery number two and headed to the driveway. The small scattering of leaves danced out of the way, the acorns not so much. On the smoother deck it did get them rolling, but on the rougher concrete surface it was like they were super glued down.

Came inside, disassembled the thing and packed it back in its box. After dinner we went back to Home Depot and spent $150 bucks on a new gas powered leaf blower.

Mmmmm, Pizza

There is a new pizza place in town and we were excited to eat there, but our excitement was tempered some after our first visit.

We were pulling back into Aiken after our trip the Florida a couple weeks ago when I noticed that the long rumored wood fired pizza place was actually open. We took a sharp left turn into the parking lot. The place was sparsely, but tastefully, filled in with 5 booths along the window and 6 tables between the booths and the open kitchen. We stood in front of the entry area where the cash register was and waited to be seated. The girl behind the counter motioned us forward and explained we ordered there, paid, and then the food was brought to you. You want a drink? “Chose from these fine beverages,” as she sweeps her hand, Price Is Right style, across an array of Coca-cola products. I select a Coke Zero and Donna declines any, and asks for water. We are handed styrofoam cups and instructed where to get ice. It was right over along the side where you also get your silverware.

The pizza was great and worth the hassle. Sort of.

Turns out they had just opened their doors for a soft opening a mere 4 days before. Hopefully some of the rough edges of their service would get smoothed out as they get more experienced.

Well, we wanted pizza tonight, but weren’t real confident that they had worked out all the kinks, so I was sent over to pick up a pie to go. They did have a working soda fountain machine, so you get a wider selection of soft drinks and you don’t have to scoop ice out of a metal pitcher with a red solo cup. There are now four young girls working there instead of one, but the whole enter, stand around near the door while looking at the menu before ordering and shuffling off to a table thing still exists.

Unfortunately the greatness of a wood-fired oven baked pizza when placed in a cardboard box and driven 1.7 miles is severely diminished. Fortunately, it is still better than the frozen take home or chain delivered version. Barely.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1180

Skaneateles

We went to watch polo this afternoon and took along the new guy at work. The weather was perfect, sunny and low 70’s and the game was awesome. It was the finals in an 8 Goal* Tournament and after 5 of the 6 chukkers the score was tied 7-7. The final ended up being Skaneateles 12, Hutchinson Farms 9. Vaughn grew up around horses, but had never seen polo, so he had a great time. We couldn’t have asked for a better game either, usually when we go to a polo match we are lucky to see 10 goals scored total.

*The goal total is not an indication of how many goals the team should score but a player handicapping/ranking system.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1177

Bridge Run

Did a practice run today for the MMC Leaf Peeping trip in two weeks. Four hundred miles, 10 hours, 4 caches found and three bridges covering three centuries. Two of the bridges are covered, one you can drive on (shown above) and one you can’t and the 3rd is probably so old it never had a car drive over it at all.

Not so sure about the fall colors though. It is very spotty with a lot of trees in places bare of foliage and right nearby green leaves. In two weeks I’m not sure what we’ll get, blazing colors with a few bare trees or brown leaves with a lot of bare trees or something similar to today’s show which was worth the trip, but no postcard views.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1176