The World Is My Oyster

Not me, but the woman in the car with two kids I saw Saturday.

As we like to do on Saturday morning we have breakfast at DD. I get a small coffee with cream and sugar to go along with, aptly, a coffee cake muffin. Donna gets a toasted plain bagel with butter and cream cheese on the side and washes it down with a small hot chocolate/no whipped cream. We then, if possible, sit at the stools looking out over the parking lot and read the store’s copy of the Saturday WSJ.

Near the end of our breakfast this Saturday I notice a small 4-door car pull into the nearly empty parking lot and stop smack in the middle of the traffic lane. I could see a short overweight woman behind the wheel. At first I thought maybe she was trying to figure which spot to pull into, but she didn’t move. After about 30 seconds, both back doors open simultaneously and out out step two kids, a boy and a girl. They both look to be somewhere between 9 to 12 years old, maybe 5′ tall and weigh about 200 pounds. They close their doors, start walking into Dunkin’ Donuts and mom starts to drive off.

I go into full cranky old man mode: I say, inside my head, to myself, “This is the last place she should be bringing those kids for breakfast, they need a little lean protein, a small glass of juice and some exercise. And I can’t believe she is just dropping these kids off. Where is she going? Back down the street a bit to buy a lottery ticket?” But she doesn’t go far, she pulls into the opposite side of the lot to park, taking up the better part of two spots with her 1998 Ford Escort. This sets off another volley, again inside my head, about how people can’t park worth a flip, either through arrogance or ignorance (kind of wish I had one of these handy.)

For all I know my crappy attitude towards this family is totally unfounded. It could be that the woman just got Social Security check on Friday and could finally pay to get her car out of the shop, where they still haven’t fixed the power steering right and she has a few dollars left over so she can buy her two grand-kids, who she rarely gets to see, a couple of hot chocolates on this chilly morning.

Started down, still down.
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9-5 12-5 5-1

We got our baseball preview issue of Sports Illustrated last week and guess which team they picked to win the American League East? The Boston Red Sox. They picked the Red Sox to beat the A’s in the Division Series and the Sox to beat Twins to win the American League and play the Giants in the World Series. Who did they pick to win the World Series? Right. The Red Sox. SI isn’t the only ones singing the praises of the Boys from Beantown this year either.

Maybe the players believed with all that good press and they would just have to show up to crush their enemies, see them driven before themselves, and to hear the lamentation of their women! Or maybe they forgot that this season started before the first weekend in April not after it. But for whatever reason, the FRS were soundly beaten by the Texas Rangers in the first three games of the season by a combined score of 26 to 11 (see post title.)

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
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Aiken Horse Show

The above is not a photo run through some sort of plug in filter to make it look “artistic”, but an actual image captured by my digital camera (click on the image to see what it should look like.) It started today while we were at the 2011 Aiken Horse Show in Hitchcock Woods. All of a sudden the LCD on the back of the camera looked all purple and scrambly. I spun the mode dial and it cleared up. It happened again and I cleared the same way. It would crap out randomly, sometimes I’d get 10 pictures and others only a couple. After awhile nothing would get it out of “Purple Expressionist” mode, even resetting the camera to its default state. Do you think I need a new camera? I do.

So I did some shopping this evening and ended up buying another Panasonic. The recently deceased TZ3 was purchased in August of 2007 and if I can interpret the file numbering system it took 5,946 images. The new camera is a model ZS5 that is 12 megapixels instead of 7 and has a 12x zoom instead of 10 with a slightly wider angle setting of 25mm instead of 28. It has a panorama assist mode and those manual exposure controls I wanted back in 2007, but didn’t get. At 7.3oz it is 2oz. lighter and is almost exactly the same overall size. The LCD viewfinder is a bit smaller at 2.7 inches instead of 3, but that should help increase battery life. (I wonder if they use the same one?) It is black in color instead of blue, $100 cheaper and should be here Wednesday.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
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Papercraft Tease

These two items are from my next papercraft project. What do a Rubik’s Cube and a plastic insulated cooler have in common? This one will take some time and a whole lot of patience. When completed it will be considered my thesis for my Master’s in Papercraft.

Started up, went down, still down.
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Greg’s Wet Car

I guess he took enough ribbing on Monday and Wednesday about not bringing the new car out in the rain, that today, in spite of the forecast of more rain, Greg did drive it to work. Or maybe it was because he had an appointment to get the windows tinted in the afternoon, but whatever the reason, there Jackie O was, covered in raindrops in a very damp parking spot this morning.

Started up, still up.
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Greg’s New Car

The wait is finally over, Greg got his new Camaro convertible on Saturday. He drove it most of the way home with the top down, but some gray clouds on the horizon made him stop and put the top up and according to him it was a good thing, as he just made it into his garage before the skies opened up.

The photo above is a simulation of Greg’s new car because he has decided not to drive it in the rain and it has been raining a lot around here lately (actually he did drive it to work yesterday, but I forgot to take a picture.) I may totally explain the blue glove later, but it was for something similar to last year’s great roach kidnapping caper. The car is painted a sharp looking orange metal flake with black stripes and the interior is black leather with orange inserts. Not my cup of tea, but God bless the individuals who buy cars that outrageous.

I heard Greg on the phone to his wife on Tuesday afternoon telling her how much fun it was to drive, but the car hadn’t told him its name yet. He did say it was definitely a she though. I haven’t told Greg that I have a name for his car and it is Jackie O. This is not a reference to JFK’s widow, but a reference to the car’s color scheme and it is short for Jackie-O-Lantern.

Started up, still up.
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Paparecraft Propaganda

Papercraft Propaganda by Paper Tom. It is supposed to put you in mind of an old school Soviet statue.

I was out of contention in the NCAA Basketball Pool after last week and after this weekend’s games everyone is out of it. We still have the first winner, second place and third place winners, plus the Booby Prize for finishing last, but no one has any more points to gain. Of the teams in the Final Four, only 3 people had Kentucky, 2 people picked UCONN & one person picked Butler to make it that far. Of those 6 people, no one picked any of those three teams to move on, thus rendering next weekend’s Final Four irrelevant.

Started up, still up.
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