Missed It By That Much

We were up before the sun to hunt the wily Post Office. First stop was the Citadel in the dim light of the pre-dawn sky. We didn’t see any building that might fit, so we looped in around the parade ground and back out vowing to return later.

We then snagged the 2 others in “downtown” and headed to the city marina where there was supposed to be a neat place to have breakfast. Only trouble was there was no place to park if you didn’t have a sticker or $12, so over the Cooper River (Arthur Ravenel Jr) Bridge to Mount Pleasant vowing to find another place to eat.

The first Mount Pleasant Post Office was an easy find, followed by Isle of Palms and Sullivans Island, but on the final leg of the loop the second Mount Pleasant PO proved elusive. We had an address, 401 W Coleman Blvd, Suite A and as we traveled along watching the numbers go down some sort of space warping occurred and there was 400 numbers on the odd side of the street (which we wanted) and 600 numbers on the even side. We pulled a u-turn and slowly cruised looking for a Post Office. we found a strip shopping center with an address of 409 but then there was construction and the numbers were back in the 600’s. One more u-turn and further down the street with both sides having 400 numbers we found 401 in a small strip. Suite A was a nail salon with a blue mail box outside. I looked inside and could see no other evidence of postal activity and figured the PO had probably moved on, but I took some photos anyway.

Breakfast was at a small place that I’m sure has been a restaurant of some sort since the place was built in the 60s. There was a local crowd, the service was great and the food was adequate. When I pulled out of the restaurant to head back towards Charleston I passed a place that had small signs by the road for UPS, FedEx, etc. Thinking that maybe that is where the PO had moved to I pulled in and seeing a small USPS sticker on the door took some photos vowing to check on the interweb when we got back in for the day.

For the record, neither place is the Post Office, the second Mount Pleasant PO is now in a different location altogether, which we passed, but didn’t see. There is some internal debate as to whether to go back and take a picture of it. For one it is against a rule made in the beginning to create a list and follow it, no fair updating it, or it might be like painting the Golden Gate Bridge, once you are done it is time to start over and two it would mean yet another trip over the Cooper River Bridge which beside crossing back and forth to get these 4 Post Offices, we made a second trip with the top down for the express purpose of me taking pictures.

Then we made a third round trip to go over and find the terminal of the Charleston Water Taxi at Patriot’s Point so we could take a cheap boat trip, $8 per for a round trip, and get some photos of the Charleston waterfront sights, i.e. aircraft carrier, that bridge, cruise ship, aquarium, etc. Wouldn’t you know it, but the Water Taxi is closed for the season, opens next weekend. We got in the car to drive for lunch, but the fine print on the bottom of the card of the Mediterranean restaurant Donna had picked out was closed on Saturday. We ended up at a seafood place on Shem Creek that was very good, but I still think we would have preferred a gyro.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 110

Business Trip

In the off-season when there aren’t any kids around at the pool of this condo complex on the oceanfront of Folly Beach, the seagulls have a good time.

The original plan was to wait until after dinner and going out to take a couple Post Office photos, but everything when awry when I suggested stopping and taking one or two because we were going to pass right by them. Seven Post Offices later we arrived at the hotel in Charleston.

That wasn’t the first time our plans strayed either. We had picked a couple places where we were going to go for a nice long walk in the woods, the first being Givhans Ferry State Park, where there was a 5 mile loop trail around the perimeter. When we opened the trunk at the park Donna asked, “Where’s my hiking boots?” “Oops.” I was wearing mine and somehow forgot to pack hers. All she had was a cheap pair of sneakers to walk in and after calling me a knucklehead, she gamely started on the hike with me. It took us a bit to find the beginning of the shorter loop trail, which according to the map off the net, led to the longer loop. We never did find a connection and after talking to the ranger it turns out it wasn’t a great loss, because that big loop wasn’t really a trail, it just followed an old forest service road.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 108

Let’s Do The Time Warp Again

When the Losties left on the Island started jumping around in time I have to admit I was intrigued, I’m a sucker for a time travel story, but after last night it was almost too much, like too much cheesecake can be too much of a good thing.

Sort of seemed like they are doing it to show how clever the writers and producers of the show are. See how smart we are? Remember way back in episode X of season X when character A did that thing in the jungle and there was what appeared to be a throw away comment to soon to be dead character B? Didn’t seem like much at the time, but now, in season 5 episode 4, it is a major plot point that lays out the story arc for character C.

Well I’m hooked now, so, I say:

It’s so dreamy, oh fantasy free me
So you can’t see me, no not at all
In another dimension, with voyeuristic intention
Well-secluded, I see all
With a bit of a mind flip
You’re there in the time slip
And nothing can ever be the same
You’re spaced out on sensation, like you’re under sedation
Let’s do the Time Warp again!

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 106

Who Is This Woman?

Not too much time, TDTVS is on in a couple minutes. After tons of typing in cryptic commands in three attempts to get the wireless to work under Ubuntu, I did it, but only after running some temporary commands. I was then led through more typing to make it permanent. When I rebooted, it turned out to have been anything but permanent. I tried the temp fix again and it would have worked, but the thing that turned out to be permanent was the wrong WEP code that I had entered last night it seemed to be preventing me from logging in.

I may just have to reinstall Ubuntu from scratch again. Or maybe I should see if I can find a different distro that does support this wireless card.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 106

Intrepid Ibex

No time for posting I’m too busy monkeying around with a distro of Linux, Ubuntu 8.10. I’m in for some serious fun as it doesn’t recognize the wireless card in the Dell laptop I’m installing it on.

Back to the command line in a terminal window (those weren’t the days), Step 1 get and install some drivers:
sudo apt-get install cabextract
wget ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/softpaq/sp34001-34500/sp34152.exe
cabextract sp34152.exe

At first it didn’t install because it didn’t recognize the command ‘cabextract’. When I got that working I couldn’t complete step 2:
sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf

Didn’t recognize ‘ndiswrapper.’ I did discover that it will connect to the internet if I plug in the cat5 cable straight from the router. Tomorrow I’ll figure out this wrapper thing.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 106

The Geography Of The Sexes

WOMAN
Between 18 and 22, a woman is like Africa, half discovered, half wild, fertile and naturally beautiful!

Between 23 and 30, a woman is like Europe, well developed and open to trade, especially for someone with cash.

Between 31 and 35, a woman is like Spain, very hot, relaxed and convinced of her own beauty.

Between 36 and 40, a woman is like Greece, gently aging but still a warm and desirable place to visit.

Between 41 and 50, a woman is like Great Britain, with a glorious and all conquering past.

Between 51 and 60, a woman is like Israel, has been through war and doesn’t make the same mistakes twice, takes care of business.

Between 61 and 70, a woman is like Canada, self-preserving, but open to meeting new people.

After 70, she becomes Tibet, wildly beautiful, with a mysterious past and the wisdom of the ages…only those with an adventurous spirit and a thirst for spiritual knowledge visit there.

MAN
Between 1 and 70, he is like Iran, ruled by nuts.

Red Shirt

Although originating in Star Trek, the term “redshirt” has been used in commentary on other action adventure stories, particularly serialized television. As a plot device, redshirts are most commonly used on shows which focus on characters who are prominent members of a larger group. In terms of plot function, redshirts serve to highlight the danger of a situation without forcing writers to sacrifice lead characters.

February is National Heart Month and this coming Friday is Wear Red Day 2009 to support the fight against heart disease in women.

For whatever convoluted reason our company nurse decided to pass around a memo last week to try and get everyone to wear red today, Monday, February 2nd and in spite of what happened to Frogurt while wearing a red shirt in last week’s episode of TDTVS…

…I took my life into my hands and wore a red sweater to work today. Obviously because I am home sitting on the couch in a yellow shirt, nothing bad happened to me on today’s “away mission.”

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 106