Shouting At The TV

Growing up I remember my mom watching the network evening news and getting so upset at whatever was happening in the country and world that she would literally shout out her disgust at Chet Huntley or David Brinkley or both. I remember thinking what good does that do?

Donna likes to watch the network evening news, so if I’m in the room, by proxy I do too. We watch ABC because she liked to watch Diane Sawyer when she was the anchor, but we are still watching ABC long after she is gone. Diane used to always start the program by saying, “BREAKING NEWS!” even though it was only breaking if you didn’t have access to a 24hr news channel or the internet. I think the breaking news qualifier for them could be added if it happened since their broadcast ended the night before.

When David Muir took over I was hoping that he would drop the charade, but no, he’s even amped it up a notch. Plus he has continued the ridiculous “the Index” feature, 4 or 5 stories hyped at every chance during the first 20 minutes of the broadcast. They are the television version of clickbait, eight to ten word headlines that make you want to find out what they are about. They are saved until near the end and you get one 10 second Index item followed by a minute and half of commercials for prescription drugs your insurance won’t cover the cost of. Then another tidbit and another 2 minutes of commercials, rinse and repeat until it is time to see what the daily lottery numbers are.

It used to be just watch the show and listen with 1/4 of our concentration letting the news wash over us, but since what’s his name took over the news cycle over a year ago, that has been impossible. We don’t shout at the TV, but Donna has taken to sighing a lot and I cussing non-verbally in my mind. Now that the hirsute yellow-fin tuna has taken office Donna’s sighing is becoming words of disbelief and I’ve started muttering incoherently. It is only a matter of time until one of us turns into my mother and starts shouting at the TV.

I’m here to tell you, it won’t be me. From now on if I join her on the couch anytime between 6:30 and 7:00 PM I will have my headphones on listening to Radio Paradise and staring at my Kindle.

Michabelle Inn

Normally when we take a vacation and are driving, we are typically spending each night in a different hotel, but this time we were spending the bulk of away time in the same spot, a B & B called the Michabelle Inn in Hammond, Louisiana.

Hammond was our destination because Donna’s 2nd mom was going to be celebrating her 90th birthday and that is where she is living after being exiled there by the Wicked Witch of the Gulf, Katrina. We would also get to spend some time with Adele’s daughter Sally who has been friends with Donna since they were like 9-years old. Also we’d get to see these “little” tykes who at one-time used to be sort of our god children, Claire & Stuart, Sally’s offspring.

The Inn, as well as being a really nice place to stay and costing slightly less than the Holiday Inn Express, it is within easy walking distance (less than 1/4 mile) to Adele’s house, AKA Party Central. Because we weren’t going to be up at Oh Dark-Thirty for a dawn departure as usual we would actually be able to take advantage of the breakfast part of the B & B, normally by the 8:00 AM breakfast start time we are 50 miles away from whatever table it would be served on. All four mornings we were there we woke at 7:00 AM (or our normal work start time), made coffee and tea in the Keurig machine in the hall and sat on the 2nd floor balcony until it was time to eat.

The only real negative about staying in this place for me was the crappy WiFi. I couldn’t get a decent signal in the room, on the balcony, in the hall or downstairs in the parlor, which is why I wasn’t writing about this while there. I’d give it 4-1/2 stars out of 5 and if we are ever near there again at a logical overnight stop we’ll probably stay there again.

Mr. Trump Makes A Point

Because it is Friday and no one will probably notice, I figure I’ll be safe with my new Over Reaction figure in this particular pose, but come Monday his right hand will be down by his side and in his left will be up high holding up a quote/tweet of his that I find particularly interesting. This way it will appear as he is in a debate with my other political action figure, the Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, who is already there holding one of his quotes/tweets.

Visibility 66,000 Inches



Two weeks ago I changed the oil and rotated the tires on the CTBNL because we were getting ready to take a weeks vacation and drive to Louisiana. After studying the future weather in Hammond all week with figures crossed, on Friday night we gave up hope and started to pack like we had 3 times the storage space of a Miata, because we did. The forecast said anywhere from 100% to a low of 60% chance of rain/thunderstorms for the entire four days we’d be there and for the drive both there and back. We’d take the Sonata.

We still were going to take the back roads as both Donna and I abhor the Interstates. We simply enter home as the start and add our the destination into Google maps while selecting the Avoid Highways option. We then made a couple of slight shifts in the route to accommodate our choice of an overnight stay and a small bit of nostalgia. 673 miles/12 hours 56 minutes There was of course a few more minor shifts (and one major) in the route on the fly as usually happens when we get going.

The minor shifts mostly involve wandering around looking for suitable lunch places. Because the route and timing may fluctuate it is nearly impossible research every little town and every little eatery on the internet beforehand, so we are usually end up relying on our Garmin GPS. And while I try to keep the maps updated (and I did just before the trip) its database of places to eat is not that comprehensive, so we’ll roll up on what is supposed to be a chosen lunch spot and it will be out of business, only serves dinner or there are no cars in the parking lot. So we try again. If that fails we will try and find a local and ask, “Where is a good place for lunch.” This works well, if you can find someone knowledgeable, but you might be surprised at how many people say, “I don’t know, I just work here. I live in another town.”

The major one happened because we were using the map of Alabama that we used 2 years ago for the Motoring Challenge Loop and it had a nice highlighted route on it. On that trip our last stop over was in Evergreen at a Sleep Inn & Suites, somehow we got that in our heads that that was where were going, except we were staying at a Holiday Inn Express this time. As we got closer and closer to Evergreen the GPS was kept telling us to veer north. Finally Donna pulled out the reservation email and noticed that the HIE was up the road northwest 35 miles. If you leave the GPS in the Avoid Highways mode and select Shortest Distance under navigation, the route turns very zig-zaggy and adventuresome just to save possibly a few feet.

Visibility along the Gulf Coast last Friday was a little more than a mile in spots (or 66,000 inches) and along there somewhere the Purple Whale passed the 66,000 mile mark.

65,000 Oil Changes

Changed the oil and rotated the tires on the CTBNL this evening. I like to do this bit of routine maintenance every 5,000 miles because the nice round number makes it easy to remember. It takes about an hour and a half from start to finish and acts, like washing and waxing, as a bonding agent between a man and his car.

The first step in the procedure is to back the Purple Whale out from under the awning so I can use that for my wrenching under. As I rolled back I noticed the odometer reading was 650004. The last time we drove the Sonata was to work on Tuesday, so the 65k milestone was crossed about halfway home on that day.

The Challenge Begins

This year the Moss Motoring Challenge has been revamped by removing the requirements for US states and Canadian provinces. They have also knocked off the alphabet soup of cities, so you can now compete and not have to drive the entire North American continent gatherings points. There are more destinations, sign related and roadside oddity type points to be had. Should make for a lot more people with a chance at winning. Should be fun.

This morning the temperature was in the teens, so we temporarily lifted the “must bike ride to Ridgecrest for a panini” rule and drove over. Plus because of the temps, we took the Miata instead of the Sonata as it was nice and warm due to being in the garage. At breakfast the owner mentioned that on her way to work this morning (at oh-dark thirty) that Park Avenue was closed due to a water main break.

When we left, Donna said, “Road Closed was one of the challenges for 2017. Let’s go check it out.” Park Ave is pretty straight so we could see the excitement from a long way away, but we couldn’t get too close to the action because they had cones up a block away. We couldn’t have gotten any points for anything here anyway because the Road Closed challenge required a sign and the crew out in the freezing weather and calf deep in gushing water didn’t bother to erect one.

No worries, I knew they were still working on the York Street railroad bridge, so we detoured (pun intended) over there.