Rants

One Cheek Landing

Went on my usual 3-mile rollerblading loop this evening. The middle mile is around the one mile walking track surrounds the city’s recreation center. I enter on one side and at about the 3/4 mark the trail it passes between the parking lot and the main road. Cars come in on one lane and they exit in two more, one for right turns and one for lefts. Cars are supposed to yield to walkers and skaters and almost always do. Today one of them didn’t for me.

As I skated towards the entrance I looked behind me so as not to be ambushed by a car swooping in from the road. I then looked forward and could see a big sedan coming out in the left lane and I slowed a bit to make sure he was stopping. When I saw that he was, I continued forward. Trouble was there was a smaller car coming in the right lane, I noticed late, and the driver didn’t even see me at all. I braked hard and it really wasn’t going to be enough, so I turned hard right into the space between the two cars. My right skate came out from under me, dumping me on my right butt cheek.

I got back to my feet and thanked the guy in the car that stopped and looked over at the one that didn’t, who was sitting at the stop sign before entering the main drag, and gave him the evil eye in his rear view mirror. I think he felt bad and was waiting to see if I was alright before going, but I just skated back on my way with wounded pride and a pain in the butt.

I’m still sore 5 hours later and I’m betting that sucker is going to be purple by tomorrow.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 398

Going To Puerto Rico?

Donna spent 2 years in Puerto Rico as a kid and has fond memories of that time. Going back there to visit has always been thought in her mind.

Well, a couple days ago her friend Sally (of State Department fame) emailed to say that once she is done with her tour of duty in Namibia next February she was going to be in the states for a few months before heading off to her next assignment. First she will be spending some time in Louisiana with family and then a fellow embassy friend was lending her their condo in Puerto Rico for a week. A plan was hatched to kill two birds with one stone, a visit to PR and get to see Sally at the same time.

We weren’t planning on spending a whole week with Sally just maybe an afternoon and an evening meal. Sally was going to be spending time with her mom and her daughter. Donna and I would spend a couple days in Fajardo were she spent her early teens when her father was a sea plane pilot flying a Gumann Goose for Antilles Air Boats. Donna actually studied Algebra in Spanish, which explains why she asks me to solve all the quadratic equations we run into in our daily lives. A visit to the only rainforest in the National Park system and a bioluminescent bay were also on the schedule. The next three or four days would be spent exploring the central mountains and the quieter south & west of the island. Saturday while out shopping we bought a book called “Let’s Go Puerto Rico on a Budget.”

That $15 may save us a lot of money.
Driving:

Traffic is heavy; many people disregard speed limits, neglect to use turn signals, and cut off other cars. Markers such as stop signs are treated more like suggestions than rules. – Carjackings are common in Puerto Rico, especially in big cities. To avoid nighttime carjackings they have passed a law that drivers do not have to stop at red lights from midnight to 6AM. Central mountain roads tend to be narrow with sharp curves, poor visibility and frequent one lane washouts. The greatest danger is not the roads, but rather the local drivers who often use the whole road in narrow spots and drive at high speeds around sharp turns.

Health:

There are no required inoculations to visti Puerto Rico, but travelers should have the following vacines up to date; MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), DTaP or Td (diphtheria, tetnus and pertussis), IPV (polio), Hib (haemophilus influenza B), HepB (hepatitis B). Make sure the food you eat is fully cooked and the water is clean for drinking.

Time:

Puerto Ricans have a much more laid back sense of time than most Europeans and North Americans. Things get done when they get done. Restaurants do not maintain strict closing hours and will stay open as long as people are still around. If an establishment is empty, it will likely close early. Museums and stores frequently change opening hours and will close if someone who is supposed to work happens to be sick or unavailable.

After reading all that and reading a bunch of web reviews of tours, tourist spots and accomodations we have pretty much talked ourselves out of going.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 390

Backyard Burgers

After our morning’s shopping both Donna and I needed a little snack. At the exit road of the shopping center was a little gas-n-go place, so we pulled in and got me a Coke and her a bag of chips. As we leaned on the fender of the car we both could smell charbroiling hamburgers, mmmm. Sharing the building with the quick shop was a Backyard Burger place.

It was a little early for lunch at 10:15 AM, but we had an early breakfast. The smell of cooking burgers was too much, we were now hungry. Dang, they didn’t even open until 10:30. We left and started our way back to Aiken. As we drove we tried to come to a consensus as to what to have for lunch when we got home, but we kept coming back to those burgers.

So we drove around Augusta aimlessly for a while and by the time we got back, the Backyard Burger place was open for business. We were actually their first customers of the day and it took a minute or so before someone came from out back to take our order which consisted of two 1/3lb. burgers and a small fountain drink. The fellow gave me a receipt and told me my ticket number was 134, the time was 10:34 AM. I almost made a smart ass remark about good thing he gave me a number, what with all the people in here, I’d hate to get the wrong order, but held my tongue. I sat down and Donna went off to use the rest room. It seemed like it was taking her a while, but they had a TV in the corner, so I watched some inane college football pregame show for a bit. Donna came back and we chatted for a few more minutes, we were still the only ones in the place. What could be taking so long? Finally, not wanting to shout out “134” to a nearly empty room and/or perhaps to give himself something to do, our order taker brought the two burgers to our table.

While tasty, the burger was not really hot or fresh and it should have been considering the amount of time it took to get it to us. I think the patties we were eating were probably the ones we smelled cooking at 10:15 and they had been lazing about under a heat lamp for the last 40 or so minutes.

The Honeymoon Is Over

I signed up for web hosting yesterday with HostGator. Last night I had no problem logging in to my Cpanel. I even uploaded a php snippet that sent anyone stumbling on the .net site right over to this, the .com site.

Today I received an email saying asking me to call HostGator’s support line. They had an issue, the recorded IP address location from where I signed up was several hundred miles away from my home. I explained to the nice lady on the phone that I had signed up at work and all our internet goes through the corporate servers in St Louis, MO. After confirming my information, she said I would get another welcome email.

I never got that second welcome email and now at home this evening I can no longer log into my Cpanel nor is the web page I uploaded yesterday showing. mr-miata.net is 404. I went to the support site and opened a ticket stating pretty much what I said above and went and had dinner. An hour later I checked back on the ticket and it was still listed as open. Right below it was another ticket that they had started saying my domain was on hold and it read like this afternoon’s email.

Called the support number again and got a nice fellow who was true to his word, within a minute of him saying he would send me a new welcome email I heard a beep from my Gmail notifier. Trouble is I now have to go change the name servers at Yahoo’s Domain Control Panel to the new servers and wait for internet propagation.

Enough about me…

A co-worker purchased a Kodak EasyShare digital camera about 3 or 4 years ago. He thinks he probably spent about $300 on it and it has served him well, up until he went on vacation last week when it quit working. Nothing happens, when he turns it on the power light comes on and then just fades out.

Today he called the support line at Kodak to find out how to return the camera for repairs. The woman on the phone told him that they don’t repair those anymore. But that all was not lost, if he returned the defective camera to them in a couple weeks he would receive a voucher entitling him to a big discount on a newer re-manufactured Kodak digital camera. He was given an address to send the camera to and a list of four different cameras and what they would cost with his discount.

After hanging up in order to get an idea of which camera he would get and its feature he did a little internet research. The first model he looked at on the Circuit City website had a price there of $180 which the Kodak folks had offered to him at $220. Nice discount, more like profit for Kodak. The other three cameras were priced the same way, the new camera was considerably cheaper on the street than Kodak’s re-manufactured camera direct from them. This left a slightly bitter taste in his mouth. Guess who won’t be buying a Kodak digital camera this time around?

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 382

Weekend Update

First the good news: We are finished with Phase Three of Donna’s breast cancer treatment, Friday was #33 and her final radiation treatment. Lumpectomy, chemo and radiation are done. Now we are on to the preventative process. Because her cancer was ER+ she will be taking a drug called tamoxifen for 5 years to help prevent any recurrence.

Now to the mediocre news: We only made it through 18 of 24 episodes of TDTVS, AKA Lost: Season 2. Some of the situations and happenings are just too weird. But mostly what keeps us coming back is the humor, especially Sawyer’s irreverent and on target nicknames for the rest of the survivors. It seems as if some of the back-story we are getting is mostly rehashing of last years back-story with a touch of new stuff added to make the character’s stories meld together with strange coincidences, how their lives interacted in the past without them knowing about it.

Then the bad news: Two help desk tickets, two separate emails and even two phone calls have gotten me anywhere with my current web host, ssWebHost, so I’ll be moving to the .net address soon. The first ticket actually prompted a dialog. They said that I should let them know and they’d send me a link to where I could set up my new credit card. I responded that they should send it to me. 4 days later I still hadn’t heard back so I tacked on another message to the ticket asking again. After a week of no replies, I opened a separate ticket asking for way to change my billing info. I figured the new one would pop up on their radar. Nope.

I emailed the billing department of the web host. Silence. OK, let’s try emailing their support address. All I heard back was the white noise of packets zipping by my node.

Hidden in a dark corner of ssWebHost’s web page was a contact phone number, Friday I gave them a call. After an unusually long time the phone started to ring with a very strange sound. I knew I wasn’t calling Kansas. After about 7 rings an automated voice mail system kicked in. It was not English, could have been Russian or some other middle European language. Having dealt with enough of these type things I figured if I hit the #2 on the phone I might get another language and if I was lucky it might be English. Nope. Maybe I misdialed. The second time I had the same pause as before, but this time instead of the funny ring I was disconnected.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 378

“Assigned” Parking

Oil StainLike most people who work at places that have their own employee parking lot, the folks at ASCO fall into two categories, the ones who park anywhere as long as it is as close to the entrance door as possible and the ones who park further out so they always get the same spot.

Donna and I are of the second group, we park way out, so we always know where the car is, we minimize door dings, we get in a nice walk just getting from car to door and back, plus we have our own “assigned” parking spot because no one else wants it. Two rows up from us is where the two 2nd shift maintenance guys park and they are in the same group too. One fellow drives a newer Dodge Dakota or occasionally he drives his nicely restored 66 Ford Mustang. The other guy drives this ratted out pickup. As you can see the surface underneath where he always parks looks a lot like the shoreline of Prince William Sound after the Exxon Valdez. I’m hoping this guy takes better care of ASCO‘s machinery than he does of his own daily driver…

Started up, went down, back up, down again, up again, down once more, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 358

Now That’s Scary

Candy!Tuesday, August 29th and the local supermarket has an aisle full of Halloween candy. It is more than 2 months away for criminy sakes.

What’s even scarier is that I got a message from my credit card company this afternoon asking me to call them about some questionable charges. They questioned 4 charges, two under ten dollars and a couple of over $300. They read me the names of the companies and I didn’t recognize them, either as anyone I have done business with or had ever heard of. They were all online charges and I didn’t ask, but I’m guessing they caught them using something along the lines of SPAM filtering. Anyway, that account is closed and a new one with card is being sent to me.

I have made several travel purchases in the last 10 days or so, but almost all were from reputable big companies. The timing was curious though, all the transactions were midday today which is just a bout 4 hours after I received my monthly email notification that my web host had hit that very same charge card. I wonder just how secure my CC data is with these folks? I would just pack up and leave, but they are the ones who registered the domain name mr-miata.net, so I’d lose that and y’all would be cast adrift in the rough seas of the internet until you found me again. If someday soon you come here and don’t find this blog, try lifeofbrian.com or mrmiata.com or some other variation on those themes…

I would do it in a heartbeat if WordPress was as easy export my posts from as Movable Type was.

Started down, went up, still up.
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