Leaf Blowers

Are these worth the price/hassle? I’m not to sure. We bought a small gas blower for like $75 a few weeks ago and really got out and tried on the ol’ driveway this evening. My picked up her rake and did the front yard and I did our 2-car wide driveway. She had about 2 as much square footage to do and still managed to finish slightly ahead of me. She got a nice little workout and I got a numb hand from the vibration, somehow I’m not to sure about this contraption.

Maybe it went so slow because I’m a novice. Wonder if there is a web page of leaf blowing tips? Nope!

Neat Hat

December weather (with a twist of March) in November today. Progress. The sun came out and we hit the 60’s, but the wind came sweeping down the plain. Went out for the monthly Aiken Bicycle Club meeting at the Aiken Brewing Company in downtown Aiken. I had a hamburger that was OK and washed it down with a . . . . coke. Did buy a new Palmetto Cycling Coalition hat for $15 dollars Donated $15 to the Palmetto Cycling Coalition and got a neat hat as a thank you.

Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 302

Acorns

This is the time of year that even if it isn’t raining outside you may want to carry an umbrella with you when you go get the newspaper in the morning. The noise is also very interesting. Bang, bounce, bounce, BANG (as it hits the aluminum gutter) then silence for a minute or two and repeat. Later this month a hard hat will be required as the hickory nuts start falling.

There Is Always Next Year

Today’s high temp was 54, which is approximately 20 degrees colder that the average high temperature for this date. To boot it rained on and off all day. Felt like a January day here in my fair city, Aiken, South Carolina although it is only early November.

Speaking of November, I finished up making November’s CD Mix of the Month. Burned the CDs last night, printed the labels and liner notes and packed for mailing at work today. Submitted for your approval this month is a Christmas music mix. Since the mixes have been showing up late in the month if I waited until December to do the Christmas thing folks would get it too late.

Wouldn’t you know that my latest Christmas CD came in the mail today, too late for any song to make it into the mix. Too bad, Dobby Dobson’s version of White Christmas from “Reggae Christmas from Studio One” is almost as good as The Drifters version I included. There is always next year.

Started down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 301

One Seemed Sure Catch

The only reason the top went up today was because I washed it. It was very chilly 42 degrees this morning too. Today was our little membership drive at our sponsors, Rader Mazda. We had a real good turn out and had fun to boot. Lots of visitors, a couple of Miatas stopped by and looked us over and left, a couple of “Fast & Furious” types stopped and looked and left maybe a half dozen Miatas showed and hung around a bit and chatted. I figure maybe 3 new perspective members, one seemed sure catch. Some folks had fun talking a father and son into test driving a Miata, they didn’t buy, but hey. One of the members took pictures, see ’em here. (That’s me in the red, white and blue rugby shirt.)

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 300

Lord of the Rings

There is three hours of my life I won’t get back. Not only that, it seemed like four. I love science fiction/fantasy stuff. But what I consider my biggest failures in the realm is my inability to read the Tolkien trilogy. I have made 3 or 4 attempts at reading them, but fail miserably each time. I always get bogged down with all the names and strange words for things. I figured the movie would be just the thing, visuals for me to hang my synapses on. Wrong. I never did get anybody’s name straight and the two humans were so similar looking I thought for a minute they were the same person. They did a remarkable job making the normal sized actors playing hobbits look small, but I never could fully buy in. I spent most of the time figuring in my head how they did instead of paying attention. And what was it with the subtitles in sections? The whole time they were speaking English and then just for a bit lapsed. And there is this one scene as they all race down a lot of steps in a narrow, high up staircase. Naturally a section is destroyed making our characters jump over the gap. As the gap widens it is obvious that the smaller characters can’t make the leap themselves, so the human tosses the hobbits over. Then he looks at the troll and the troll says, “No one tosses a dwarf.” Tolkien wrote that? To me, it seemed like an out of place bad joke.

It Just Encourages Them

In last night’s Monk he asks his “assistant” Sharona if she is a Democrat. To which she replies, “I’m not registered and I don’t vote, it just encourages them.