Year: 2014

51,000 Transponders

Friday, a dozen or so miles north of Yeehaw Junction on the Florida Turnpike, the Purple Whale rolled through its fifty first thousandth mile.

For the first time, in the dozens of times we’ve used the Florida Turnpike to travel to or from Palm City, we didn’t have to stop at a toll booth. We motored right on through, only slowing a bit. After listening to BIL Paul tell us of all the advantages of using SunPass for so long we finally decided to take the plunge.

There are two kinds of SunPass devices, a sticker for you window for $5 or a transponder for $20. We went with the more expensive kind for two reasons, the transponder has suction cups and can be transferred to different vehicles (and we have two) and Paul said that it would come with your twenty bucks back loaded on the device. Well, at least we got that portability thing. Maybe brother-in-law bought his transponder real early in the process or during a special promotion to get the $20 back on the unit at purchase time, we did not.

We did see, in our two trips using it, the other benefit he mentioned, saving a percentage off the cash toll price. On our trip home the toll using the SunPass was $11.04 instead of the usual $13.50. Plus we had saved another three bucks on a round trip to Miami. This means we are over a quarter of the way towards “saving” money using SunPass.

Derek Jeter Is In Palm City

Yankeemobile

Maybe he retired here, or maybe he is in town visiting friends, because I saw his car in the local Publix parking lot earlier tonight.

50,000 Trick or Treaters

Because all the kids in our neighborhood are grown and gone, the growing popularity of church, city and business sponsored high density candy giveaways, to serve 50,000 trick or treaters at our house it will take approximately 10,000 years.

Skull Head Mask Update: I did get the screening in and it did serve its purpose, but then I couldn’t drink my morning DD coffee with it on. Also, the mask didn’t fit over my regular glasses, so I couldn’t do any work with it on either. Although I really like the look of the Wintercroft masks, I’ll probably work on an actual costume for next year instead. I might just buy the pumpkin one, not to wear, but for entry in the company’s carving contest.

Just inside the town limits of Barnwell, SC the Purple Whale crossed the 50,000 mile mark.

Made This For Friday

The Skull

Get your own skull pattern (and many others) from here: Wintercroft

(I may try and put some screening in the holes to darken them all up)

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1427

On The Beach In Puerto Rico

Beach Scene

Donna and her family lived on Puerto Rico for a couple years in the late 60’s because her dad was a sea plane pilot fly­ing a Grumman Goose for Antilles Air Boats. The family would often take advantage of the nearby beaches. Here is a photo showing Donna, her sister Sandy, family friend Frank and big brother Steve playing in the sand. What’s that in front of them, did they build a sand castle? No, wait a minute, that’s little brother Scott’s head, they’ve buried the poor kid alive.

I know they dug him up before the tide came in or crab plucked his eye balls out because we visited him and his family in Washington state back in July of this year.

I Sprained My Blogging Muscle

Eclipse

I’ve got/had a bunch of stories I kinda want to write about, but can’t seem to get them from my head to the keyboard, so I’m going to start small:

When I finished my rollerblading route this evening I remembered that there was supposed to be a partial solar eclipse today. It was scheduled to start in our area about 5:30 and continue until sundown when there would be 40% of the sun’s face covered by the shadow of the moon. It was already after 6:00 PM and the sun was already so low in the sky that because of our tree filled neighborhood, I had no clear view. The “photo” above was taken from in my driveway and shot through the big magnolia in the yard across the street.

49,000 Orange Skinny Plastic Posts

Not My Photo

Not My Photo

That is all that separates us plebeian I-95 drivers from those that are willing to pay extra to travel in the Express Lanes in the center of Miami. The lanes run for about 10 miles from central Miami to Exit 12, Miami Gardens Drive. What they have done is take two existing lanes and segregate them from the other 4 or 5 with plastic poles and charge your SunPass device 75¢ to $1.50 for the privilege of riding in these special lanes. Trouble is that during busy times, and I saw a couple of them last week, these “express” lanes are no better than the regular lanes.

About the time I was watching a car squeeze through two of these poles to go from the Express Lanes to the regular ones during Friday evening rush hour, the Purple Whale was passing through the 49,000 mile mark on his odometer.