Whatever

Last, Then First

The photo on the left is the last photo I took with my just over one year-old Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS5. The photo on the right is the first photo taken with my brand new Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS15.

If you look in the Seattle picture, the Space Needle and the building to its right look a little hazy while the new 200′ waterfront Ferris Wheel and it surroundings are sharp and bright. Every shot I took of the Seattle skyline on the ferry ride that day had the same dark hazy area on it in the same area.

The next to the last day on vacation when I was taking pictures I noticed that blade-like the lens cover wasn’t retracting all the way. The only way to fully open it was to give one of the blades a helping push with a finger. Once home and I saw the last day’s photos I thought I must have left a smudge on the lens from manually opening up the lens cover. I pulled out the camera and looked at the lens cover and there was something sticky looking on the bottom half. When you the camera around in a back pocket or you are near kids or s’mores there is no telling what might come in contact with your camera.

I took the camera to work to try and clean it off. Lens cleaner and a cloth would not get the sticky stuff off so I got some mild solvent we use for cleaning circuit boards to spray on the metal shutter blades that make up the lens “cap.”

The solvent melted the shutter blades and sealed them shut like I used super glue on the edges. I quickly tried to pry then apart thinking that if I could get them open all the way, the camera might still be useable. Well I only got them part way open before they totally melded together. As a bonus, the solvent did clean off any smudges that might have been on the lens, but it did that at the expense also removing any lens coating.

Needless to say I felt like Herb Tarlek, “I swear to God Big Guy, I thought turkeys could fly!” I swear to God Donna, I thought those blades were metal.

Driver’s License Renewal

After work Donna and I renewed our Driver’s Licenses. The longer we live in South Carolina the longer the span between renewals becomes. At first it was two years, then 5, then 5 without having to actually go to the DMV (they reused your photo) and now it is up to 10 years.

At each visit over the past 23 years it seems to get a little better organized and dare I say a little more efficient each time. All in all today’s experience wasn’t too bad as we were in and out in less than a half hour.

Now, when you walk in you are triaged by a woman at a desk before even entering the main room. She checks to see if you have the required paperwork and its completeness before giving you a ticket with your code, depending on the services required, and a sequential number. There were ten 10 stations with clerks (7 of which were manned) and one camera station for pictures. Each time a clerk completed their task, a computer generated female voice would announce the next person’s code-number combination. There were 4 big LCD screens scattered about the waiting room, with a running list of which clerk was handling what, so you could get an idea of when you would get called.

For our renewals (letter C if you are interested) the process went, see a clerk, pay the fee, return to your seat, get called over for a photo, return to your seat, pick up your license, exit through the gift shop. As we sat waiting, we watched someone go through these steps, so we knew about how much time we had after paying our money, before we were out of there.

There was only one thing unusual about this man, he had to be led slowly by the elbow by another person through each step.

Fearing for our lives that we might be riding our bike one day on a road this man frequently drove, when I received my license from the photo person, I asked her about him. She told me he wasn’t getting a license, just an ID card…phew.

Big Mac For Breakfast

Here is the nutritional information for the Big Mac from the McDonald’s website:

  Calories Cal from Fat Total Fat Sat Fat Chol Sodium Carbs Fiber Sugars Protein
Big Mac 550 260 29 10 75 1000 46 3 9 25

This morning we didn’t go to McDonald’s for breakfast, but our usual haunt, DD. I have made no secret for my love of Dunkin’s Coffee Cake Muffins and coffee here. Also, Donna is a big fan of their hot chocolate and a toasted bagel, so there is no resistance when one or the other suggests we get our morning meal there. I’m betting we average eating there twice a week. Doesn’t hurt either that it costs us less than six bucks. It is no wonder that muffin is so good; here is its nutritional info from the Dunkin Donut’s website:

  Calories Cal from Fat Total Fat Sat Fat Chol Sodium Carbs Fiber Sugars Protein
Coffee Cake Muffin 590 220 24 8 65 480 86 1 51 7

Pretty close, huh? The Mac is way over top with sodium, but the muffin is way ahead in sugar (the new nutritional evil), but otherwise almost a tossup. Add in my small coffee with cream sugar and we have a winner.

  Calories Cal from Fat Total Fat Sat Fat Chol Sodium Carbs Fiber Sugars Protein
Big Mac 550 260 29 10 75 1000 46 3 9 25
Coffee Cake Muffin w/ Coffee 710 270 30 12 85 500 105 1 68 8

Of course you can’t get a Big Mac for breakfast, but you can get a Sausage McMuffin and a small coffee with cream and sugar:

  Calories Cal from Fat Total Fat Sat Fat Chol Sodium Carbs Fiber Sugars Protein
Coffee Cake Muffin w/ Coffee 710 270 30 12 85 500 105 1 68 8
Sausage McMuffin w/ Coffee 500 270 29 11 290 940 39 2 11 21

For comparison, my usual at home breakfast of Frosted Mini Wheats, 1/2 a banana and a 1/2 cup of 2% milk.

  Calories Cal from Fat Total Fat Sat Fat Chol Sodium Carbs Fiber Sugars Protein
Home Breakfast 303 34 4 2 10 51 66 8 21 10

Blood Drive

We had a blood donation drive at the Valve Store(C) today and they have had signs posted all over the plant about a month now reminding folks about it.

The last time I gave blood, when they were done bagging the pint, I sat up and then promptly passed out right back into their recliner thing. To wake me up they had to pour ice water on me after calling my name and lightly slapping my face didn’t work. Deep down I know it was probably a one time thing, but that was about 6 years ago and I haven’t donated since. I used to feel bad about not donating, but that has since worn off. So much so that when ever I saw one of the posters for donating all I really saw was:

It did almost make me want to try it again…

Ed. Note: Glad I didn’t, I just found out there were Munchkins, not actual DONUTS.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Tran?si?tions since 10/24/08: 1163

Donna Is Getting Implants

Not that kind you sicko, dental implants!

A week and a half or so ago Donna felt a swelling in her mouth near where she has a 3 tooth bridge. We called the dentist and they saw her that very afternoon. We were hopeful that there was just something stuck under there that had eluded her cleaning efforts. No such luck. X-rays showed that the tooth supporting her bridge was cracked and the swelling was from an infection. They took impressions and sent her home with a script for an antibiotic and a pain pill.

Fast forward to today and she had an appointment to have the bridge removed (see photo), the broken tooth pulled and the temporary fitted. As Marvin Lee Aday once sang, “…two out of three ain’t bad.” The temporary “bridge” wasn’t correct and the dentist couldn’t make it work. She is now stuck with a big ol’ gap between her back molar and an eye tooth on the upper left side until another temporary is ordered up. They took some new impressions hoping they will get a more correct temp next time.

The temporary is something that will have to work for a while too, because to fix this issue we are talking two or possible three implants which with our meager dental plan will probably cost us more than my recent scoping and ER visit. I wonder how much we can recoup by selling the bridge you see to one of those RVs that are popping up around town that buy gold?

Hey! Four Eyes!

Three of the pairs of glasses I’m thinking of trying from Warby Parker on the 5 pairs, 5 day deal, I could mock up using their Virtual Try On service. I had to layout the Percy and the Reynolds myself using Paint Shop Pro. I’m still waiting on our local eyeglass place to get me the ones I picked out from them. If I haven’t from them in another week I’ll go online and try these.

We missed out on the usual Friday bike ride to work this morning because when we started loading up the bike I noticed the rear tire was flat, like no air at all. We either picked up something on the way home or I didn’t get the tube in right the other week and it finally failed.

Speaking of failure, the left fog light of the Emperor has burned out. Sounds like a Sunday afternoon project.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1155

The Autotrophs Began To Drool

Since we last spoke a week ago*:

The Miata has gotten a bath to wash last Saturday’s bugs off only to put some more back on yesterday when we took the MMC to Sardis.

I’ve got the new shocks for the Emperor in the garage which will probably get installed this week some time. Went with the non-adjustable Koni SRTs this time, because why spent twice as much for the adjustable Sport models.

The FRS have won 3 games and lost 4 which is pretty much on par for the way this season is going. Unfortunately the MFY won all seven (now nine in a row for them) putting the Red Sox (who are still in last in their division) 8 games out.

Mad Men is over for another year and we now have absolutely nothing to watch on TV except for The Big Bang Theory and we only have 4 episodes of that to watch before we are all caught up with all the Season 5 shows.

*Where the heck did it go? Seems like yesterday…

Started down, went up, back down, back up, down again, up again, down once more, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1152