Rants

Great Company

Donna and I went to the local mall and did some shopping, a couple of shirts and a denim skirt for her, no action figures for me. After we were done in the mall she had one more thing she wanted to buy some place else, an ice cream cone. As we left J.C. Penny’s we noticed a ’95 M Edition Miata, that pretty Merlot color with the BBS mesh wheels, right near the entrance with its top down. Inside was a woman talking on her cell phone. I guess she wanted to finish her conversation while her driver was inside shopping. We walked all the the way out to the far end of the lot and got in our car, as we pulled out of the lot I could see that she was still on the phone.

A mile or so down the road we stopped to get that treat. The girl made a cone for Donna and filled a cup for me, then we went back outside, wandered over to a picnic table and sat down. A couple minutes later, what should pull into the ice cream shop’s parking area, but that same Miata. The woman was still talking on her cell phone. They parked and the man driving slowly walked around the back of the car giving the woman a few seconds to get out. When she didn’t, he opened the door then reached in and undid her seat belt all the while she is talking. At first I thought because of the way he was helping her she might be handicapped, but no, she finally stood on her own power and sauntered over towards the shop yakking away while he closed the door behind her. He managed to get half her attention with a question to which she nodded back at him. He headed into the store while she tried out a couple chairs looking for just the right one all the while with her cell phone glued to her ear.

A couple minutes later the man returned with what looked like two small sundaes. He placed hers down on the the arm of the chair she was in, sat down and started to enjoy his ice cream. At one point I think she braced the phone between shoulder and cheek to sneak a spoonful, but maybe not. By now Donna and I were finished, so we walked back to our car which took us right by the couple. As we passed I could see her sundae was untouched and his was half gone. When we got by, I asked Donna should I give him an MMC newsletter. She just shook her head no.

I started our Miata and he looked over, recognizing the sound perhaps, and gave us a thumbs up sign. I responded with a friendly wave and backed out of the spot. As we turned right out of the lot onto the main road, he was still looking and she was still talking on the cell phone. Maybe I should have given him the newsletter, because it seems like he could use some company that might actually involve him in the conversation.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 158

FOD

Donna’s stomach is feeling a lot better now. Took about 10 days this time as opposed to just 3 after chemo #1. She is still only going to do 5 hours days at work, because she tires easier than the last chemo too. But because she is feeling better she wanted to go back to her usual chores, one of which is mowing the lawn. I told her no, but she could help by doing the FOD walkdown prior to my mowing, picking up all the broken branches and stray pieces of paper that have ended up on the lawn.

FOD stands for Foreign Object Damage and is a left over from our Naval Aviation days. On shore duty every morning after after mustering in the whole squadron would go out on the ramp behind the hanger and walk in a wide row down the flight line picking up any detritus laying around. On the ship before flight ops the air boss would call for a FOD walkdown and everyone on the flightdeck would gather in a line on the bow and slowly walk all the way to the fantail cleaning every square inch of the deck. You would be surprised just how much damage a 1/4 long #10-32 screw can cause when ingested by a jet engine.

We were supposed to have tacos at home for supper tonight, but we ended up at Chili’s for ribs because of some FOD. Because it is only the two of us we only do half the meat of the usual dinner kit. I split a pound of hamburger in half, one part went into the freezer in a plastic bag and the other went into the pan. We had a half a pack of the powdered seasoning mix left from last time, so I used that instead of the new one. After I got everything mixed up in the pan and it was simmering nicely I noticed what looked like a big piece of red pepper. And a few pieces of green pepper or plant matter. WTF? Was it something in the meat? Something left in the 1/2 pack of seasoning mix? Nothing had gotten near the pan, so thinking better safe than sorry, we tossed it all in the trash and went out to eat.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 155

What A Great Stroke Of Programing Luck

NBC’s news magazine show, Dateline, just happened to be doing a show on possible damage if a major earthquake hit several US cities, when after that show ends the network would be airing 10.5: APOCALYPSE the story of major earthquakes hitting the country.

Please Hit The Damn Home Run Already

I’m not a fan of Barry Bonds, but I sure hope he hits #714 soon, so they will stop interupting baseball games on ESPN to watch him bat.

Neon Diaries Continued

Called the body shop at 2:00 PM to make sure the Miata was ready. They were putting it back together, so they could get it washed up. The fellow said it should be ready by 5:30 (coincidentally their closing time.)

Tonight was the May meeting on the MMC and we needed to be in Augusta by 6:30. A 5:30 pick-up time would be cutting it close. About 4:00 PM we decided it wasn’t going to work out, so I called the body shop to let them know I’d just get the car tomorrow. The receptionist passed me through, but I spent the next 2 minutes on hold. I just hung up. Tried again at 4:30 with the exact same results. When I tried at 5:30, still no one picked up the phone in the body shop. Probably all frantically trying to get my car ready. To bad, I wasn’t coming.

I’ll call again tomorrow at lunch and see if anyone will answer the phone then…

Started up, still up.
Neon Top Transitions since 04/24/06: 0

Phucking Phone

I have been a mildly disgruntled Tracfone customer for a couple of years now. Donna and I are limited cell phone users and they are a very cheap, for us, alternative. We bought a second phone from them at the end of last October and it didn’t work for the first week. Seemed dead, but miraculously it started working.

This last Saturday it just as miraculously stopped working. No signal. Same symptoms as when we first got it. I called customer service and was told to take the phone to another city and see if I get any signal. I took that sucker all the way to Norway and still got nothing. To make things more interesting I have an identical phone, that was sent to me back in October, that I had never opened up. I charged it’s battery and it has been showing no signal right along with the current phone where ever we have gone for the last couple of days.

I was tempted to just buy another Tracfone, get it up and running and then transfer my 54 minutes of time over to the new phone. But I decided to not to throw any more good money after bad. Narrowed down my choices to two providers and came with in a hair of pulling the trigger on a Boost Mobile phone, but in the end elected to get a Cingular GoPhone with the pay as you go option.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 112

Visited Norway Today

Visited Norway TodayI may have to start a South Scandilina gallery. I’ve already got a picture of me in Switzerland and the town of Denmark is just around the corner.

Donna and I got up early and drove to Orangeburg to visit the city’s really nice Edisto Memorial Gardens. Not the best time to visit, the roses aren’t totally out yet and most of the azaleas are past, but still worth the drive. There is a really nice sensory garden, a really cool metal palmetto tree fountain and a long boardwalk along the south fork of the Edisto River. We walked all over the place for a couple of hours, but knew it was time to go when Easter services around town let out and families descended on the place to have pictures taken in their spring finery.

I spent the afternoon up a step ladder installing two ceiling fans in our soon to be new bedroom. Two, because the first one didn’t work once I got it 90% installed. Lowes was more than happy to swap out for another of the same style fan, but they wouldn’t refund me for my time spent. The good thing about the second install is it took less than half the time of the original one.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 112