Fading Light Of The Evening

I only left the house twice – er, no three – times today. First, early morning before the heat, Donna and I went for a short 12 mile bike ride to go and get some fresh bagels for today and subsequent breakfasts. The second was in the middle of the heat of the day in the MSV with Mom in tow to go to the mall for sneaker shopping. And lastly in the fading light of the evening for our walk around the block. The Miata sat all day, we’ll find out if the fix for the “Hot Weather Rattle” worked tomorrow after work.

Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 169

Heat Index

At 3 PM today the Weather Channel site said it was 95 degrees outside but the heat index made it feel like 104. The term “Heat Index” is the summer equivalent of the wind chill factor and I think was invented by the folks at the Weather Channel because it makes the hot temperatures seem more exciting. Here is a quote from their definition: “The Heat Index is a function of temperature and relative humidity. The combination of the two results in an apparent temperature which gives an idea of what it would feel like under normal-to-low humidity conditions.” Here is my definition: If it is above 85 degrees it is hot. Simple, huh?

Where My Hunt Began

Just a few mile errand was all the exercise the Miata got today. It was like middle 90’s with the heat index way up in the middle 100’s so I drove around with the AC on. When I got home I decided to try and locate my hot weather rattle. Started as a mild annoyment towards the end of last summer. Disappeared for the entire winter and reappeared in late spring. The rattle only happens when the temperature is above 85 degrees and sounds like it is coming from the glove box. Donna has pushed/pulled/pounded on every possible surface on her side of the car. I even tried driving around with the glove box removed once a few months back, but the rattle was still there. Today I decided it must be under the hood somewhere, so that is where my hunt began. I pushed/pulled/pounded on a bunch of things until I got to the windshield washer fluid bottle – it rattled slightly! I tightened the two top bolts and lined a hole in the fender with duct tape where a plastic stud from the bottle sits. I’ll let you know…

Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 169

Some Blue Goo

To make up for yesterday’s lack of attention we drove the Miata this morning to an appointment downtown and on the way home stopped at AutoZone and bought 4 quarts of Penzoil 10w-30. Came home and washed & dried the car outside and then pulled it in the garage for the interior cleaning and changing the oil. While I was at it I cleaned and conditioned the leather seats. Ooh, and tried somewhat in vain to remove all the bug guts of the nose of the car with some blue goo. Got most of it but I won’t win any car show. After that I waxed just the nose of the car. In a few minutes we’ll take a night time drive, because the heat index will possibly be back in double digits. As a consequence of that there will be a few new insect inards plastered to the front. 🙁

Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/02: 169

Blogger

By the time you see this the crisis will be over, because if it wasn’t over you wouldn’t be seeing this.

From staus.blogger.com:
We had a major server bite the dust this morning. Pro(2) is publishing (for most blogs). Publishing is off for basic and template editing is down for all. Working on getting the back-up online.

That was sometime this morning. I’m still waiting. Another reason I should get my own domain name and find a webhost, but from past experience, that is not necessarily an any more reliable way to go.

What Day Is It?

My wife and I took a weeks vacation. We went away for 5 days and came back with 4 more days off still in front of us. We came back without spending a week away because Donna’s sister and husband were flying up from Florida to spend the extended 4th of July weekend with us. When I say fly, I mean that he was renting a plane and piloting the 2 of them up from Cape Coral. They had to cancel because of the iffy weather. Paul only has a VFR license, so he can’t (or really isn’t allowed) to fly if there are like clouds in the sky.

Driving home yesterday seemed like a Saturday, because we always come home from vacations on Saturday, so we can decompress on Sunday before returning to work. So today felt a lot like Sunday, except I knew it was like the middle of the week in the back of my mind. Making it seem more like a Wednesday was the placing of recyclables by the curb for tomorrow’s pick-up. Normally that occurs on Thursday, but being as today was a holiday they will pick up on Friday instead. We have an early morning appointment with our financial planner tomorrow, so the alarm is going off at around 7:00 PM. The early wake up call will make tomorrow seem like a Monday, so is today Sunday? Wednesday? Or Thursday?

My Sorry Ass Handwriting.

Took a little notebook along as promised. Wrote in it dutifully everyday. Man it was really hard not having a backspace key! Lots of overwriting and crossed out bits and stuff on top of a line and things in the margins with arrows and I’ll still have to filter it to get it in here. It will be tomorrow or Friday…plan is to just put it in this one post for today so it “looks” like I wrote it all in when I got back on Wednesday.