Well, I'm more considering trying to do my own podcast and I've decided to see if I can manage to keep up enough topics in my blog that I might be able to find enough topics for a podcast. So I'm going to try to keep this more up to date and keep a better log of potential daily topics and see what I come up with. Then I'll see if I can transition that to audio and/or video. The more I listen and watch podcasts the more I want to do one of my own. This won't necessarily be all the info as much as notes to myself for things to talk about. THough if you have any questions feel free to ask! (:
One thought I had more today was just trying to get my family more part of it and asking questions as well. But let's see if I can start this as of Yesterday Sunday...
Watched:
Fantastic Four-Just ok
Naruto-One of my favorites, but just an hour long recap
Both on Cartoon Network Toonami
and on Cartoon Network Adult Swim
http://www.adultswim.com/shows/index.html
Trinity Blood-Pretty good
Bleach-more of a fav than Trinity Blood. Still only a few episodes in.
Eureka 7-One of my top favs. More emotional and always leaves me wanting more.
Headed to Hornell for brunch at Ruperts with Mom, Dad, Kris and Granny. Switch finally gave up the ghost more or less entirely on the way to the farm. Connected the wires to just be on all the time. Just realized now that I still didn't go looking for another switch and fix it. Oh well, it should only be running power for the veggie fuel gauge, seems like I should still have battery after a day and a half of gauge power...
Nice brunch though we missed Karen, Mike, Jake, Hannah, Emili and Vivian. Granny seemed to quite enjoy herself and ate plenty! (: She had more fun watching the guy make omelettes than anything else though!
Stopped by an openhouse in Almond. Didn't realize that Arkport and Almond are so close. Didn't even notice Bishopville. House was an immediate no due to about 4 neighbors right next door on every side but the back. Inside was pretty nice though with a huge bar with about 13 chairs which was tied in to a nice large living room and still another family room. Nice big kitchen with lots of cabinets, 4 bedrooms. Nice big open master bedroom. But the aster bedroom had a squeaky floor, and the other bedrooms and bathrooms seemed like they needed a little updating. Nice central air, but it sounded like heating would be a pain with $1100 worth of a gas bill that didn;t include $800 worth of hand fed coal. Nice horse barn with storage and another garage, but the 11 acres was in a weird offset patch and most of it looked to be a steep wooded area that hadn't been opened at all. Little bit of everything with gas and coal heat and wood fireplace, oil water heater, central air, and not sure what the furnace in the horse barn was (might have been a wood stove there too).
Stopped by the Village Cafe in Arkport for ice cream, but they only had like 5 hard ice cream flavors, so I skipped it. Stopped at Wendy's on the wayt home and pretty much just crashed after that. We watched Herbie Reloaded. Better than I expected. Still very silly, but good.
Today:
Watched from Adult Swim:
Robot Chicken
Venture Brothers.-Both ok, but not my favs and have significant ups and downs depending on the episodes.
Tried to catch up on my podcasts. Lots of stuff from G4, Also Hope is Emo and a Diggnation.
Did some work for Dr, - Little concerned with trying to take on an entirely new thousands of lines structure for one website to start.
then mowed the field around the barn - Everything worked, occasional stumble, roll pin seemed to come out a little, but stayed in the clutch adapter.
Filtered as much oil as I could, but taking longer with cooler temps and I think the motor oil I did last weekend or so clogged up my jeans pretty good. Need to get another pair in there and make sure those don't have holes in them.
Got the aerator together. Thinking of using a barrel or jugs of water for weight. Wondering about them jumping if they're not full and it doesn't pull smoothly.
Watched Sharkboy and Lavagirl. Little bit different, but still pretty good. Thinking of how kids might take it. Definitely a "be sure to dream and make it happen" motif. Kind of gave me a bit more inspiration to take a step towards the podcast, though I've been thinking of it more and more lately and talking to Sara more about it lately.
Getting late now at 8:30ish, need to get to bed for
work this week!
Outlook:
Probably home around 4 tomorrow in case Dad needs me for packing the corn.
Wed- Hannah's game
Thurs would be a bike ride day, but probably rain
Saturday is at least a couple fall festivals and who knows what else!
Till the next time!
Levi (:
Monday, September 25, 2006
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Canton again
Well as usual, it's been a while since I posted anything up here. So, the most recent news I was going to post was our trip to Canton.
This was the first time the veggie mobile had gone this distance in one shot. I did some overestimation and took 5 cubes of oil (about 4.5 gallons each). So the rear end was sitting even lower than usual with all that weight back there, but it drove fine. Though I thought the exhaust was getting a little louder. I rather liked the sound of the turbo, but the exhaust did get a good bit loud when you were accelerating. It seemed to be pretty much completely open by around the time we hit Watertown on the way up. but I didn't notice any scraping sounds. Oh yeah, this is only a week or two after I replaced 2/3 of the exhaust with new parts that came with the car when I bought it. So I drove until a ways north of watertown when I had to stop to refill the veggie tank anyway. Sure enough the exhaust wasn't hanging on the ground, which was very nice. but it was also pretty much completely open after making a turn towards the ground coming out of the turbo. Oh well, we were loud, but we weren't ruining anything else in the process.
Oh yeah, had a nice lunch at the Cracker Barrel in Syracuse on the way up. I had Pecan pancakes for the first time. Pretty good, but I think blueberry are probably better...
So we got up to Cranberry Lake in the Adirondaks where we were staying because Sara told me there had to be a place to stay for around $40 a night after I told her the Best Western where the reception was listed at around $125, and most of the cheaper places were around $75. And of course pets are a big question with a lot of places. So I just went to switchboard and started calling every place within 50 miles of Canton, and came up with the Stone Hollow Motel in Cranberry Lake for $45. Well, it's not a bad place, but it's kind of like a lake cottage. Not exactly fancy by any means, and while not that bad, it had a few noticeable spots that weren't perfectly clean. (: Also, no phone in the room and basically no cell service. But it worked.
So we headed over to Christi and Dave's reception at the Best Western in Canton and it is definitely a ways from Cranberry lake. It took about 45 minutes. but we got there at around 5:30 which turned out to be about the right time as we were assigned a seat at a table with no one we knew, but that table was already filled, so we sat at the next one over which still had a few seats open and was with people from Canton that I knew. Any way, when we first walked in, I noticed a wedding party and glanced at a girl and said to myself "oh, there must be a couple weddings going on here" and went on in. Then Sara says to me "You just walked right past them and ignored them". I was like "huh? that wasn't them", walked back in and sure enough it was Christi and Dave. So we said Hi and headed on in. Got caught up with a few people from Canton and had a nice dinner and Christi and Dave looked quite happy. Although Dave certainly looks awfully serious in some of his wedding photos. (:
As expected, we were a bit uncomfortable. More my fault than anything else. Actually I've gotten rather used to it and am not as uncomfortable as I once was. I just realize that I'm not normal and I'm probably not going to have long chats with people in that situation. Neither one of us are social butterflies. And Sara is lucky if she remembered anyone that she might have met once or twice some 7-10 years ago. I at least knew a few people that I helped out more than a couple times while working in Canton. But it still takes me a bit before I become comfortable with people I have lost touch with. And neither one of us is that comfortable in situations with large numbers of people, let alone large numbers of people we don't know. And of course I only further frustrate Sara by being me and seeming "odd".
I also frustrated her by not taking her up to dance. Though I had somewhat prepared myself for it this time. I have never danced period, so it's a bit of a step for little ol' Levi who doesn't like to be in front of people, especially people he doesn't know. But, like I said, I was thinking I could do a slow song or two this time. Well, they started off by calling up all the married couples which automatically puts up the defenses because the thought is "ok, what's the crazy DJ got in his head that's going to embarrass us..." I was contemplating getting up, but then I got the impression that Sara was not planning on going up so we didn't. And after that there was only one or two other slow songs, and I didn't want to go as I thought we were going to miss Dave or Christi making the rounds.
Of course Dave made it over, but he probably didn't think I seemed very social as I didn't say much. Problem was that it's just so loud and sitting a bit away, it was taking me a few second to figure out what he was saying, I was basically just going "yeah" when he asked a question. Sorry Dave, nothing personal, I just suck at being social in general and worse yet when I'm having trouble understanding what's being said due to lots of background noise.
Christi got cornered before she made it to our table so we went to look at the slideshow and I was almost ready to leave without saying goodbye just because I get uncomfortable and scared in that environment. I'm not good with going up to someone to say goodbye in that situation. And then Christi was across the crowded room which made it even more difficult. Luckily she must have a sixth sense and noticed us floundering on the side and was nice enough to make her own way over to us, so we got to talk a little.
So, Christi or Dave if you're reading this: Congratulations! We had a good time, but yeah it's stressful, but it all rests on our shoulders, not yours! Give us a call and we'll do dinner sometime where we can get a chance to talk a bit more comfortably. Either when you're down here, or we'll come back up again. (: Hope you're having a great honeymoon!
Let's see... So, it's now about 9:00 I think Saturday night. Well Sara wanted some ice cream so we went down to the Dairy Queen. Then she wanted to go past our old house in Russell. Unfortunately I didn't bring maps for where I wasn't going, and it was dark. but she wanted to go so we went. I did at least look at the map I had, and it seemed like we should eventually cross one of the roads we had taken to get into Canton from Cranberry lake the first time. Well, I'm not sure how much had changed, or how much just looked different in the dark, but I remembered very little, and Sara swore that there were new intersections or lights or something was different. but we did eventually make it to the house through the fog. Couldn't really see much, but we were there. and then we eventually found our way back to our Motel. It was about 11:00 by now and I just went to bed. Well, I slept, but kept waking up about every hour. Sara apparently didn't even get to sleep until about 3:00 and was sleeping about as well as I was.
But we made it through the night and headed back down around 7:30am. had a nice breakfast of danish and muffins/doughnuts at the gas station. We were headed to Canaseraga to look at a house so we stopped at the Dutch Hollow Restuarant for lunch around Lima on routes 5 and 20. That was a good lunch. So we made it to the house. Driveway was WAY steep and I forgot I had the cubes of oil in the backend so I scraped even more than normal on the way in, and the driveway curved to boot. I thought the house was nice, but the land wasn't that great, and Sara made mention of the various problems inside the house, so it was a No the same as the rest. So we drove home. Man were we both tired. but we made it and then took a nap. Sara hadn't been feeling well since Saturday night, and started getting a fever Sunday night. That's been on and off since then. It seems the worst has passed, and we hope she'll be feeling herself again very soon!
Oh yeah, a Happy Birthday to Lou last week and a Happy Anniversary to her and Paul today! We're on our way over there this weekend to celebrate, and if the weather's nice we may well stop in to the Cuba garlic festival on the way. It's only the second and I hadn't heard of it, but it looks quite large and potentially fun!
I think that's about it for now, hope everyone is doing well!!
Levi (:
This was the first time the veggie mobile had gone this distance in one shot. I did some overestimation and took 5 cubes of oil (about 4.5 gallons each). So the rear end was sitting even lower than usual with all that weight back there, but it drove fine. Though I thought the exhaust was getting a little louder. I rather liked the sound of the turbo, but the exhaust did get a good bit loud when you were accelerating. It seemed to be pretty much completely open by around the time we hit Watertown on the way up. but I didn't notice any scraping sounds. Oh yeah, this is only a week or two after I replaced 2/3 of the exhaust with new parts that came with the car when I bought it. So I drove until a ways north of watertown when I had to stop to refill the veggie tank anyway. Sure enough the exhaust wasn't hanging on the ground, which was very nice. but it was also pretty much completely open after making a turn towards the ground coming out of the turbo. Oh well, we were loud, but we weren't ruining anything else in the process.
Oh yeah, had a nice lunch at the Cracker Barrel in Syracuse on the way up. I had Pecan pancakes for the first time. Pretty good, but I think blueberry are probably better...
So we got up to Cranberry Lake in the Adirondaks where we were staying because Sara told me there had to be a place to stay for around $40 a night after I told her the Best Western where the reception was listed at around $125, and most of the cheaper places were around $75. And of course pets are a big question with a lot of places. So I just went to switchboard and started calling every place within 50 miles of Canton, and came up with the Stone Hollow Motel in Cranberry Lake for $45. Well, it's not a bad place, but it's kind of like a lake cottage. Not exactly fancy by any means, and while not that bad, it had a few noticeable spots that weren't perfectly clean. (: Also, no phone in the room and basically no cell service. But it worked.
So we headed over to Christi and Dave's reception at the Best Western in Canton and it is definitely a ways from Cranberry lake. It took about 45 minutes. but we got there at around 5:30 which turned out to be about the right time as we were assigned a seat at a table with no one we knew, but that table was already filled, so we sat at the next one over which still had a few seats open and was with people from Canton that I knew. Any way, when we first walked in, I noticed a wedding party and glanced at a girl and said to myself "oh, there must be a couple weddings going on here" and went on in. Then Sara says to me "You just walked right past them and ignored them". I was like "huh? that wasn't them", walked back in and sure enough it was Christi and Dave. So we said Hi and headed on in. Got caught up with a few people from Canton and had a nice dinner and Christi and Dave looked quite happy. Although Dave certainly looks awfully serious in some of his wedding photos. (:
As expected, we were a bit uncomfortable. More my fault than anything else. Actually I've gotten rather used to it and am not as uncomfortable as I once was. I just realize that I'm not normal and I'm probably not going to have long chats with people in that situation. Neither one of us are social butterflies. And Sara is lucky if she remembered anyone that she might have met once or twice some 7-10 years ago. I at least knew a few people that I helped out more than a couple times while working in Canton. But it still takes me a bit before I become comfortable with people I have lost touch with. And neither one of us is that comfortable in situations with large numbers of people, let alone large numbers of people we don't know. And of course I only further frustrate Sara by being me and seeming "odd".
I also frustrated her by not taking her up to dance. Though I had somewhat prepared myself for it this time. I have never danced period, so it's a bit of a step for little ol' Levi who doesn't like to be in front of people, especially people he doesn't know. But, like I said, I was thinking I could do a slow song or two this time. Well, they started off by calling up all the married couples which automatically puts up the defenses because the thought is "ok, what's the crazy DJ got in his head that's going to embarrass us..." I was contemplating getting up, but then I got the impression that Sara was not planning on going up so we didn't. And after that there was only one or two other slow songs, and I didn't want to go as I thought we were going to miss Dave or Christi making the rounds.
Of course Dave made it over, but he probably didn't think I seemed very social as I didn't say much. Problem was that it's just so loud and sitting a bit away, it was taking me a few second to figure out what he was saying, I was basically just going "yeah" when he asked a question. Sorry Dave, nothing personal, I just suck at being social in general and worse yet when I'm having trouble understanding what's being said due to lots of background noise.
Christi got cornered before she made it to our table so we went to look at the slideshow and I was almost ready to leave without saying goodbye just because I get uncomfortable and scared in that environment. I'm not good with going up to someone to say goodbye in that situation. And then Christi was across the crowded room which made it even more difficult. Luckily she must have a sixth sense and noticed us floundering on the side and was nice enough to make her own way over to us, so we got to talk a little.
So, Christi or Dave if you're reading this: Congratulations! We had a good time, but yeah it's stressful, but it all rests on our shoulders, not yours! Give us a call and we'll do dinner sometime where we can get a chance to talk a bit more comfortably. Either when you're down here, or we'll come back up again. (: Hope you're having a great honeymoon!
Let's see... So, it's now about 9:00 I think Saturday night. Well Sara wanted some ice cream so we went down to the Dairy Queen. Then she wanted to go past our old house in Russell. Unfortunately I didn't bring maps for where I wasn't going, and it was dark. but she wanted to go so we went. I did at least look at the map I had, and it seemed like we should eventually cross one of the roads we had taken to get into Canton from Cranberry lake the first time. Well, I'm not sure how much had changed, or how much just looked different in the dark, but I remembered very little, and Sara swore that there were new intersections or lights or something was different. but we did eventually make it to the house through the fog. Couldn't really see much, but we were there. and then we eventually found our way back to our Motel. It was about 11:00 by now and I just went to bed. Well, I slept, but kept waking up about every hour. Sara apparently didn't even get to sleep until about 3:00 and was sleeping about as well as I was.
But we made it through the night and headed back down around 7:30am. had a nice breakfast of danish and muffins/doughnuts at the gas station. We were headed to Canaseraga to look at a house so we stopped at the Dutch Hollow Restuarant for lunch around Lima on routes 5 and 20. That was a good lunch. So we made it to the house. Driveway was WAY steep and I forgot I had the cubes of oil in the backend so I scraped even more than normal on the way in, and the driveway curved to boot. I thought the house was nice, but the land wasn't that great, and Sara made mention of the various problems inside the house, so it was a No the same as the rest. So we drove home. Man were we both tired. but we made it and then took a nap. Sara hadn't been feeling well since Saturday night, and started getting a fever Sunday night. That's been on and off since then. It seems the worst has passed, and we hope she'll be feeling herself again very soon!
Oh yeah, a Happy Birthday to Lou last week and a Happy Anniversary to her and Paul today! We're on our way over there this weekend to celebrate, and if the weather's nice we may well stop in to the Cuba garlic festival on the way. It's only the second and I hadn't heard of it, but it looks quite large and potentially fun!
I think that's about it for now, hope everyone is doing well!!
Levi (:
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Been a while.
Ok, so I guess it's been a while since I did much of anything on here. So... Let's see... The Veggie car has been running rather well this year (so far). I'm getting around 1000 miles per veggie filter and about 1000 or more per tank of diesel (saw 1500 one time when we made a few trips to Clymer).
Also got to thinking about how I really need excercise and I'm staying at my parents during the week and how I said that if I lived that close to work I'd probably use my electric bike. So, I got out the old electric bike (I guess it's like 8 years old now) and made a go at it. Can't remember if I made it once or twice before the motor died. But climbing that monster hill apparently overheated something and it didn't shut off as it should have so it was dead. Called around and what not, and found that it was basically unrepairable and since it was so old, there was no replacement, nor even updates to the current chain drive setup on the newer bikes (like anything in the last 7 years). So, I wasn't planning on spending the money, but it really makes sense because it's excerice that I can fit into my life fairly easily and even with the veggie, it probably saves $2 a day from the diesel needed to start and stop twice a day. So, I found I could get a motor for about $200 that *might* work if I welded on it and invalidated the warranty. The next option was the full kit for $350, but then I noticed I could get it installed on a new bike for only $400. So I did that. Of course, like the last one it was minorly damaged in shipping, but they knocked $40 off because of it (I didn't want ot disassemble, ship, get another shipped and reassmmble for minor dmaage), so I figure I only paid like $10 for the bike itself. This new one has a more powerful motor and some suspension it which is nice for the nasty bridge abuttments. And it was setup so that I could strap in one of my old batteries right onto the frame to get double the time out of it. Which as I found out is a good thing since on the way back up to the house, I use the first battery up after the first 4 miles when I just get to the REAL hill and the last few miles. But with the two packs, I've gotten the return trip down to about 45 minutes. (heading down to work only takes one pack, doesn't require much effort and is about half an hour). Of course, I ended up riding in the rain twice a week or so ago and then it started cranking funny. Apparently the bearings were shot (not sure if it was shipping, rain, cheapness or combination), so I got a couple new ones, but it still didn't seem right when we started reassembling. Took it to another shop and they recommended just using the balls without the carrier, and informed me that it will seem rough. So I put it back together last night and it seemed ok on the way in. I guess we will see!
Umm, let's see... Tuesday we got a cool fruit basket at work that was from something like ediblebaskets... Anyway, it was little pieces of pineapple cut out as flowers with a melon ball in the middle, then other little strawberries, chocolate covered strawberries and grapes all sticking out on skewers, that we later found were poked into heads of lettuce. That was definitely some of the best fruit I've had. Very good and sweet.
Then when I got home, Tony had to get somewhere and they were still chopping, so I went out and packed the pile of haylage with the tractor for a few hours. Then about 8:00 came in and had dinner before going to sleep!
Now, LAST night... That was crazy. They said there was a chance of rain. Well, I went to sleep like 8:30 or so. Woke up around 9:30 to a pretty good thunderstorm. Thought, I'm going back to sleep. Well, then WHAM, some REALLY loud thunder. Enough to kinda wake me up and take a look at what the heck was going on out there. So I got up and took a look, and I think this was probably the most violent storm I've ever seen. I pretty much saw the lightning strike several times fairly close to the house. At least one was definitely the brightest I had seen. There was constant "daylight" lightning throughout the storm, and even without it, I could see around my room without the lights on, but when that lightning stuck, I was literally blinded for a few seconds, and I could actually hear a BZZZT, arcing sound for a second or so as it struck. That was kinda scary. Definitely a LOT of really loud really bright, really close strikes. I was up till almost 10:30 before it started easing up a bit, and the coolness finally started blowing in. I kinda wished I'd gone and gotten the camera, but I wasn't sure what I'd catch anyway.
Umm, also looking forwards to a rally race this weekend down in Wellsboro. I've never seen a real one, and it seems to be one of the last forms of racing that I think would be cool to watch. To heck with pavement, I like to see AWD cars driving sideways around corners, and then splashing through foot deep 80 foot wide streams!
Well, I think that's about most of what was immediately on my mind for now. Hope everyone's having fun!
Levi (:
Also got to thinking about how I really need excercise and I'm staying at my parents during the week and how I said that if I lived that close to work I'd probably use my electric bike. So, I got out the old electric bike (I guess it's like 8 years old now) and made a go at it. Can't remember if I made it once or twice before the motor died. But climbing that monster hill apparently overheated something and it didn't shut off as it should have so it was dead. Called around and what not, and found that it was basically unrepairable and since it was so old, there was no replacement, nor even updates to the current chain drive setup on the newer bikes (like anything in the last 7 years). So, I wasn't planning on spending the money, but it really makes sense because it's excerice that I can fit into my life fairly easily and even with the veggie, it probably saves $2 a day from the diesel needed to start and stop twice a day. So, I found I could get a motor for about $200 that *might* work if I welded on it and invalidated the warranty. The next option was the full kit for $350, but then I noticed I could get it installed on a new bike for only $400. So I did that. Of course, like the last one it was minorly damaged in shipping, but they knocked $40 off because of it (I didn't want ot disassemble, ship, get another shipped and reassmmble for minor dmaage), so I figure I only paid like $10 for the bike itself. This new one has a more powerful motor and some suspension it which is nice for the nasty bridge abuttments. And it was setup so that I could strap in one of my old batteries right onto the frame to get double the time out of it. Which as I found out is a good thing since on the way back up to the house, I use the first battery up after the first 4 miles when I just get to the REAL hill and the last few miles. But with the two packs, I've gotten the return trip down to about 45 minutes. (heading down to work only takes one pack, doesn't require much effort and is about half an hour). Of course, I ended up riding in the rain twice a week or so ago and then it started cranking funny. Apparently the bearings were shot (not sure if it was shipping, rain, cheapness or combination), so I got a couple new ones, but it still didn't seem right when we started reassembling. Took it to another shop and they recommended just using the balls without the carrier, and informed me that it will seem rough. So I put it back together last night and it seemed ok on the way in. I guess we will see!
Umm, let's see... Tuesday we got a cool fruit basket at work that was from something like ediblebaskets... Anyway, it was little pieces of pineapple cut out as flowers with a melon ball in the middle, then other little strawberries, chocolate covered strawberries and grapes all sticking out on skewers, that we later found were poked into heads of lettuce. That was definitely some of the best fruit I've had. Very good and sweet.
Then when I got home, Tony had to get somewhere and they were still chopping, so I went out and packed the pile of haylage with the tractor for a few hours. Then about 8:00 came in and had dinner before going to sleep!
Now, LAST night... That was crazy. They said there was a chance of rain. Well, I went to sleep like 8:30 or so. Woke up around 9:30 to a pretty good thunderstorm. Thought, I'm going back to sleep. Well, then WHAM, some REALLY loud thunder. Enough to kinda wake me up and take a look at what the heck was going on out there. So I got up and took a look, and I think this was probably the most violent storm I've ever seen. I pretty much saw the lightning strike several times fairly close to the house. At least one was definitely the brightest I had seen. There was constant "daylight" lightning throughout the storm, and even without it, I could see around my room without the lights on, but when that lightning stuck, I was literally blinded for a few seconds, and I could actually hear a BZZZT, arcing sound for a second or so as it struck. That was kinda scary. Definitely a LOT of really loud really bright, really close strikes. I was up till almost 10:30 before it started easing up a bit, and the coolness finally started blowing in. I kinda wished I'd gone and gotten the camera, but I wasn't sure what I'd catch anyway.
Umm, also looking forwards to a rally race this weekend down in Wellsboro. I've never seen a real one, and it seems to be one of the last forms of racing that I think would be cool to watch. To heck with pavement, I like to see AWD cars driving sideways around corners, and then splashing through foot deep 80 foot wide streams!
Well, I think that's about most of what was immediately on my mind for now. Hope everyone's having fun!
Levi (:
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Fun stuff
Ahh, I knew I needed to get some excercise in and I don't mind saving some gas, so since I've been staying at my parents 3 nights a week, I've been planning on riding my electric bike to work and back for a while now. Well, I finally brought it over this weekend after getting some LED lights (from wal-mart no less), and today was the warmest day in the forecast that didn't involve rain or freezing rain, so I decided to try it.
It was a bit cool at about 20 degrees around 6 this morning, but it wasn't bad until I started hitting the downhill portion where I was cruising around 30mph(with the brakes on). Once I got over 20mph my forehead and hands started getting awfully cold. I knew I should have worn a hat, but I have trouble getting my hair into the "almost organized" format it is, let alone looking decent, so I didn't want it completely gone. I had my thin gloves on as I was afraid I wouldn't be able to shift with the thicker ones on, but that would have been smarter. I think next time I'll make sure it's at least to freezing before heading out. (:
Trip went quite well, with the motor I can hold better than 15mph the whole way including the minor uphills. I used the motor the entire way and I hadn't drained the battery by the time i got to work. I did however drop my spare battery that I had on my back rack. I knew it wasn't on that great, but it had stayed before over rough terrain and I figured the pavement should be easy. However, the bridge abutments are NASTY, and over the third, it came off and smashed into the ground. (and then a car just barely drove around it instead of over it)
Cracked the case about in half, but it seems the batteries themselves are ok. So I stopped at Penny Pincher at lunch and got some duct tape to fix the case, and some ratcheting straps to hold the battery to the rack. I put the battery in my backpack for the last few miles of the trip this morning, and as I expected, OW, it's not fun to have another 40lbs in the backpack (especially since I probably already had 10-15lbs in there).
But, it still only took me about half an hour including stopping for a couple minutes at the bottom of the first hill and a time or two after for cold fingers, and a couple minutes for the battery, then a couple more to re-adjust things.
I knew I was WELL out of shape since I get almost no excercise at the moment (need to get some more time with those cousins of mine to get some more excercise!), but with the motor, it wasn't that bad, though I can definitely tell I've done it. I was gonna have Mom give me a ride back up this afternoon, but by lunch I'm feeling a bit more into it. So I'm gonna try it. Not sure how I'll do up our hill, but hopefully! I'm more worried about Seneca St. It's always awful busy this time of day, and I'm afraid there'll be the usual stupid kids who like to make fun of fat guys on bicycles. Oh well. Once I get some more excercise hopefully I won't be so fat and I'll have the energy to keep my speed at about 20mph instead of 15mph.
Ahh well, almost time to head out and have some fun!
It was a bit cool at about 20 degrees around 6 this morning, but it wasn't bad until I started hitting the downhill portion where I was cruising around 30mph(with the brakes on). Once I got over 20mph my forehead and hands started getting awfully cold. I knew I should have worn a hat, but I have trouble getting my hair into the "almost organized" format it is, let alone looking decent, so I didn't want it completely gone. I had my thin gloves on as I was afraid I wouldn't be able to shift with the thicker ones on, but that would have been smarter. I think next time I'll make sure it's at least to freezing before heading out. (:
Trip went quite well, with the motor I can hold better than 15mph the whole way including the minor uphills. I used the motor the entire way and I hadn't drained the battery by the time i got to work. I did however drop my spare battery that I had on my back rack. I knew it wasn't on that great, but it had stayed before over rough terrain and I figured the pavement should be easy. However, the bridge abutments are NASTY, and over the third, it came off and smashed into the ground. (and then a car just barely drove around it instead of over it)
Cracked the case about in half, but it seems the batteries themselves are ok. So I stopped at Penny Pincher at lunch and got some duct tape to fix the case, and some ratcheting straps to hold the battery to the rack. I put the battery in my backpack for the last few miles of the trip this morning, and as I expected, OW, it's not fun to have another 40lbs in the backpack (especially since I probably already had 10-15lbs in there).
But, it still only took me about half an hour including stopping for a couple minutes at the bottom of the first hill and a time or two after for cold fingers, and a couple minutes for the battery, then a couple more to re-adjust things.
I knew I was WELL out of shape since I get almost no excercise at the moment (need to get some more time with those cousins of mine to get some more excercise!), but with the motor, it wasn't that bad, though I can definitely tell I've done it. I was gonna have Mom give me a ride back up this afternoon, but by lunch I'm feeling a bit more into it. So I'm gonna try it. Not sure how I'll do up our hill, but hopefully! I'm more worried about Seneca St. It's always awful busy this time of day, and I'm afraid there'll be the usual stupid kids who like to make fun of fat guys on bicycles. Oh well. Once I get some more excercise hopefully I won't be so fat and I'll have the energy to keep my speed at about 20mph instead of 15mph.
Ahh well, almost time to head out and have some fun!
What's important
You know what's important to me? Well, I'll tell you. I got a letter and a pin the other day from the Red Cross that I had met my "Champion for Life" goal of 6 donations last year. Which I found out is the most you are allowed to do in one year. It's also not that easy, since if you do single donations that only leaves about a day or so between eligible donations. ( i.e. you have to wait 56 days. But if you wait like 60 you probably won't be able to fit 6 in one year). It's a little easier now with the double red donations where you do two at one time, though I didn't get my first one in this year until a week or so ago cause I wasn't feeling very well for quite a while after coming back from Florida.
ANYWAY... They were saying that I was LESS THAN 1% of the DONORS... Last I heard it's only like 6%(or some other ridiculously low number) of the population that gives blood. So I guess I'm REALLY doing good. Ahh well. Anyway. That feels important to me. Like I'm actually doing something worthwhile.
What else is important to me? Family. I can't always tell whether I'm doing a decent job, but I try to be nice to my family and make them feel good. So, if I make you feel bad, it's probably not what I meant to do and I apologize. Let me know AND tell me what I should have done. Hopefully that would make things better.
I suppose that much is true with anything in life. And don't think I won't be hurt by you telling me that (I will, because I care), but I suppose that's what I want (to improve, NOT to be hurt).
If I think about the biggest questions...
What do I want?
To feel good.
What makes me feel good?
Knowing that I helped someone, especially if it's at all emotional.
What do I NOT want?
To feel bad.
What makes me feel bad?
Knowing that I hurt or hindered someone.
I would say these are the truest parts of my soul. Nothing feels better than hearing "Thanks Levi, talking to you made me feel better." And nothing feels worse than "you suck, why would you do that to me?" (I didn't mean to! What did I do? What should I have done?)
Dunno, just thought I would write this stuff out as it's easier for me to type than say most times. Hopefully it will help me realize who I really am and what I'm supposed to be doing. I don't necessarily mind working on computers and I seem to be pretty good at it, but I wonder if I should be something like a counselor or something. But then I don't know how good I would be at it, and I don't know if I could handle the negative aspects of it.
Dunno. Still trying to find my best friend. Seems to be so hard to find someone trustworthy and enjoyable to be around. Not sure what happened. I can recall several good friends in my past, but it seems that everything reached it's climax around 2000 and then everything just crashed. Now it seems like I'm left with a few "good" friends that I never talk to and/or are never around, and not much of anything else. and yeah I'm still bothered by the fact that my best friend hated/s me. That's the worst part is that I just don't know what happened at the time, or now... I've mostly moved it to the back of my mind, but it is still in there and it remains the one thing I would use a single wish for if I were given one. It's that "one big regret" I have. Oh well, that seems to be the way humanity works. (:
Don't take this the wrong way, I'm not depressed or really upset at all. Just been thinking about writing some stuff out for a while now and figured I might as well take this second right now to do it!
Hope you are all having a great day!
Levi (:
ANYWAY... They were saying that I was LESS THAN 1% of the DONORS... Last I heard it's only like 6%(or some other ridiculously low number) of the population that gives blood. So I guess I'm REALLY doing good. Ahh well. Anyway. That feels important to me. Like I'm actually doing something worthwhile.
What else is important to me? Family. I can't always tell whether I'm doing a decent job, but I try to be nice to my family and make them feel good. So, if I make you feel bad, it's probably not what I meant to do and I apologize. Let me know AND tell me what I should have done. Hopefully that would make things better.
I suppose that much is true with anything in life. And don't think I won't be hurt by you telling me that (I will, because I care), but I suppose that's what I want (to improve, NOT to be hurt).
If I think about the biggest questions...
What do I want?
To feel good.
What makes me feel good?
Knowing that I helped someone, especially if it's at all emotional.
What do I NOT want?
To feel bad.
What makes me feel bad?
Knowing that I hurt or hindered someone.
I would say these are the truest parts of my soul. Nothing feels better than hearing "Thanks Levi, talking to you made me feel better." And nothing feels worse than "you suck, why would you do that to me?" (I didn't mean to! What did I do? What should I have done?)
Dunno, just thought I would write this stuff out as it's easier for me to type than say most times. Hopefully it will help me realize who I really am and what I'm supposed to be doing. I don't necessarily mind working on computers and I seem to be pretty good at it, but I wonder if I should be something like a counselor or something. But then I don't know how good I would be at it, and I don't know if I could handle the negative aspects of it.
Dunno. Still trying to find my best friend. Seems to be so hard to find someone trustworthy and enjoyable to be around. Not sure what happened. I can recall several good friends in my past, but it seems that everything reached it's climax around 2000 and then everything just crashed. Now it seems like I'm left with a few "good" friends that I never talk to and/or are never around, and not much of anything else. and yeah I'm still bothered by the fact that my best friend hated/s me. That's the worst part is that I just don't know what happened at the time, or now... I've mostly moved it to the back of my mind, but it is still in there and it remains the one thing I would use a single wish for if I were given one. It's that "one big regret" I have. Oh well, that seems to be the way humanity works. (:
Don't take this the wrong way, I'm not depressed or really upset at all. Just been thinking about writing some stuff out for a while now and figured I might as well take this second right now to do it!
Hope you are all having a great day!
Levi (:
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Geocaching
Ahh, well I'm sure there's been other things, but the latest bit of fun and newness has been geocaching. Geocaching in itself isn't new. And I've known about it for some time. But I never actually got around to looking into it much. Well, the last couple weeks I starting looking around http://geocaching.com and finding local caches and started getting rather excited about it. So... Finally this last weekend we got out and did a few. We were heading to Clymer so we didn't do any "real" caches out in the woods with items, but we grabbed the one in Addison while picking up oil, and one at the rest stop in Kanona on the way to Hornell, and one in Jamestown. We were going to do it when we got over there Saturday, but there were too many people around so we got it Sunday on our way back. That one was my favorite since the gps led me right to the spot and a quick look around and I found it! These three were just micro ones though so it's basically just find it, sign your name, then log it on the website.
Here's a link to our profile where you can check out which caches we've found (and I'll probably plant one of my own at some point).
http://www.geocaching.com/profile/Default.aspx?guid=b2345682-a287-40e9-bfd4-0991336d3054
Still got to grab the one at Wal-mart too. We drove up to it, but again, too many people around. You're not supposed to show others where they are (so they don't just take off with it). Plus they tend to worry about you when you're walking around with an electronic device and then pulling little canisters from benches and things... (:
Here's a link to our profile where you can check out which caches we've found (and I'll probably plant one of my own at some point).
http://www.geocaching.com/profile/Default.aspx?guid=b2345682-a287-40e9-bfd4-0991336d3054
Still got to grab the one at Wal-mart too. We drove up to it, but again, too many people around. You're not supposed to show others where they are (so they don't just take off with it). Plus they tend to worry about you when you're walking around with an electronic device and then pulling little canisters from benches and things... (:
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Still playing with Picasa
Well, I messed with this once before, but I was trying to avoid since it was Windows only. Well apparently Google's working on getting it to work with Linux, so I decided to try it again as I saw some new stuff last time I tried it at work. It has some pretty cool features. And nice and integrated into everything.Anyway, just trying to organize my pictures and made this cool collage of the Smith 05' Christmas. (: 
Hannah and Picasa
Hey Look It's Hannah! I was just messing around with Picasa and thought I'd try out the blogging portion. (:
Friday, February 03, 2006
Sarah's having fun!
Well, it seems that it is a tad wet down at Sarah's place in St. Petersburg, Florida. She sent me this link to a roof collapsing at the mall. Sarah said that the water actually washed the cashiers right out the door. I looked it up, their last record for rain in a single day was something like 2.23 inches. Today they stand at almost 8(or at least at last count). She sent these pictures from her apartment building. I guess it would be a time to be glad to be on the second floor!
Sarah's having fun!
Well, it seems that it is a tad wet down at Sarah's place in St. Petersburg, Florida. She sent me this link to a roof collapsing at the mall. Sarah said that the water actually washed the cashiers right out the door. I looked it up, their last record for rain in a single day was something like 2.23 inches. Today they stand at almost 8(or at least at last count). She sent these pictures from her apartment building. I guess it would be a time to be glad to be on the second floor!
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Much better
Ahh... My view of the Howard Johnson situation is MUCH better now. All thanks to someone named Dayna at Cendant. She got everything fixed in about a day and even gave us a $25 gift card!
Now if only they can train the "normal" customer service to either fix the problem themselves, or pass us on to Dayna! Since I had to figure out about Cendant's existence and relationship at all by just me and Google. ACK! Oh well, everything looks good now!
Now if only they can train the "normal" customer service to either fix the problem themselves, or pass us on to Dayna! Since I had to figure out about Cendant's existence and relationship at all by just me and Google. ACK! Oh well, everything looks good now!
Monday, January 30, 2006
Annoyances
Well... I'll admit that things aren't that bad, but it sure seems like it as I am rather hmm, "tweaked" shall we say at the moment.
I really feel like saying:
"NEVER STAY AT THE HOWARD JOHNSON MAINGATE WEST IN KISSIMMEE, FL!"
"NEVER USE HOWARD JOHNSON, ELITEREWARDS OR ANYTHING ELSE OWNED BY THE CENDANT CORPORATION!"
But, in reality, it's probably just a fluke, or at least one would hope.
Anyway, here's what's REALLY happened so far...
We redeemed most all of our maybe $30-40K worth of purchase points from our MBNA EliteRewards card to get about 5 free night coupons at various hotels for our Florida trip around New Years.
We redeemed these certificates at all the Hotels. Seemingly without major issues (I won't mention the strange looks I got at almost every desk, and the comments of "where'd you get this?", or the 2 hours it took the one Hotel to upgrade their software so they could accept the certificate)
One of the Hotels we stayed at was the Howard Johnson Maingate West Resort in Kissimmee, Fl. This was the only place we stayed two nights. Not a real bad place, but I wouldn't call it a resort. They also had interesting tiled floors instead of the carpets I've seen in every other room. And they had this booth at the front desk where you were supposed to be able to get cheap tickets to Disney, but it was just a high-pressure salesman who could only sell the better tickets for multiple day passes. Also, only breakfast option was to buy it yourself, and no high-speed access whatsoever.
ANYWAY... We get back from our trip and Sara is checking the credit card bill to make sure all the charges settle out (you know, they bill you $200 in case you trash the room or something, and then remove it later). So, everything else looks good except for this $124 charge from the HOJO(Howard Johnson) that was in addition to the $53.30 that we were actually charged and I signed the receipt for (pet fee, resort charges, telephone, etc).
So, I call up Howard Johnson Corporate. "We'll file your complaint, the Hotel has to call you back in a week".
I get a call back saying that the charges were for the two nights.
I call back and say that we had the free certificates
I get a call back and she says they never got those certificates (I specifically remember, signing them when I handed them to the front desk), and they will not remove the charges until they get either proof that they received and/or cashed them or duplicates that they can then use.
I call Howard Johnson Corporate again. -Sorry, nothing we can do, you have to deal with the Hotel.
I call EliteRewards to see about getting proof or duplicates. "We'll check into it, but MBNA would be the ones to know if they were redeemed"
I call MBNA "We don't have anything to do with it, we just keep track of points"
I call EliteRewards after a few days to allow them "research time", they say "We don't know anything about it, it's all Howard Johnson. Here's a PO box you can mail a letter and ask for a copy of a certificate" (they didn't even have a name to put above the PO box on the address. They just said it was Howard Johnson, but that wasn't part of the address)
I call Howard Johnson- "We don't know anything about that address or EliteRewards. They do it all on their own" (though curiously, HOJO's address is in the same town and pretty close in PO box numbers)
I decide that this is just stupid, it's really peeving me off so I'm gonna see what I can dig up with my old friend Google.
Soo... I come up with this:
MBNA Just deals with EliteRewards
HOJO, EliteRewards, TripRewards, and a bunch of other stuff is all owned by Cendant Corporation.
The address I got is Cendant Corporation.
So, I tried calling the only number I could find for Cendant Corporation directly and as expected, they don't even know what EliteRewards is. But the receptionist passed me to someone else. I left a message at her voicemail explaining I needed some help in regards to some eliterewards certificates and hopefully she could be of some help somehow.
Oh yeah, I left out that I did get in there and post a dispute on that $124 charge. So... I guess at this point, I'm just hoping that MBNA will step up to the plate and tell me I'm not responsible for the charge and be done with it. but I'll try to send out this letter to the Cendant address, and maybe get a call back from this other Cendant person.
Who knows.
Pain in the butt is what it is.
I really feel like saying:
"NEVER STAY AT THE HOWARD JOHNSON MAINGATE WEST IN KISSIMMEE, FL!"
"NEVER USE HOWARD JOHNSON, ELITEREWARDS OR ANYTHING ELSE OWNED BY THE CENDANT CORPORATION!"
But, in reality, it's probably just a fluke, or at least one would hope.
Anyway, here's what's REALLY happened so far...
We redeemed most all of our maybe $30-40K worth of purchase points from our MBNA EliteRewards card to get about 5 free night coupons at various hotels for our Florida trip around New Years.
We redeemed these certificates at all the Hotels. Seemingly without major issues (I won't mention the strange looks I got at almost every desk, and the comments of "where'd you get this?", or the 2 hours it took the one Hotel to upgrade their software so they could accept the certificate)
One of the Hotels we stayed at was the Howard Johnson Maingate West Resort in Kissimmee, Fl. This was the only place we stayed two nights. Not a real bad place, but I wouldn't call it a resort. They also had interesting tiled floors instead of the carpets I've seen in every other room. And they had this booth at the front desk where you were supposed to be able to get cheap tickets to Disney, but it was just a high-pressure salesman who could only sell the better tickets for multiple day passes. Also, only breakfast option was to buy it yourself, and no high-speed access whatsoever.
ANYWAY... We get back from our trip and Sara is checking the credit card bill to make sure all the charges settle out (you know, they bill you $200 in case you trash the room or something, and then remove it later). So, everything else looks good except for this $124 charge from the HOJO(Howard Johnson) that was in addition to the $53.30 that we were actually charged and I signed the receipt for (pet fee, resort charges, telephone, etc).
So, I call up Howard Johnson Corporate. "We'll file your complaint, the Hotel has to call you back in a week".
I get a call back saying that the charges were for the two nights.
I call back and say that we had the free certificates
I get a call back and she says they never got those certificates (I specifically remember, signing them when I handed them to the front desk), and they will not remove the charges until they get either proof that they received and/or cashed them or duplicates that they can then use.
I call Howard Johnson Corporate again. -Sorry, nothing we can do, you have to deal with the Hotel.
I call EliteRewards to see about getting proof or duplicates. "We'll check into it, but MBNA would be the ones to know if they were redeemed"
I call MBNA "We don't have anything to do with it, we just keep track of points"
I call EliteRewards after a few days to allow them "research time", they say "We don't know anything about it, it's all Howard Johnson. Here's a PO box you can mail a letter and ask for a copy of a certificate" (they didn't even have a name to put above the PO box on the address. They just said it was Howard Johnson, but that wasn't part of the address)
I call Howard Johnson- "We don't know anything about that address or EliteRewards. They do it all on their own" (though curiously, HOJO's address is in the same town and pretty close in PO box numbers)
I decide that this is just stupid, it's really peeving me off so I'm gonna see what I can dig up with my old friend Google.
Soo... I come up with this:
MBNA Just deals with EliteRewards
HOJO, EliteRewards, TripRewards, and a bunch of other stuff is all owned by Cendant Corporation.
The address I got is Cendant Corporation.
So, I tried calling the only number I could find for Cendant Corporation directly and as expected, they don't even know what EliteRewards is. But the receptionist passed me to someone else. I left a message at her voicemail explaining I needed some help in regards to some eliterewards certificates and hopefully she could be of some help somehow.
Oh yeah, I left out that I did get in there and post a dispute on that $124 charge. So... I guess at this point, I'm just hoping that MBNA will step up to the plate and tell me I'm not responsible for the charge and be done with it. but I'll try to send out this letter to the Cendant address, and maybe get a call back from this other Cendant person.
Who knows.
Pain in the butt is what it is.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Been a while
OK, so it's been a while. As I figured I never quite seem to keep up and upate this stuff.
Anyway, I saw Transporter 2 a while ago. That one was pretty cool. Not entirely believable of course, but pretty good. The height of unbelievableness came when he takes off with a bomb on the bottom of his car. Well, he gets it off by going through a shipyard, hitting some ramp, and rolling the car as he's flying up in the air, and this crane hook whacks the bomb off the bottom of the car just as it explodes. But anyway, it was a fun movie.
Then the other night we saw Million Dollar Baby.
That was... Well.. I guess the answer is that it was good for a Clint Eastwood movie. He makes movies that get awards. Movies that are like real life and without happy endings. Well, I prefer my movies with a nice happy ending. I enjoy happiness whether it's real or not! Oh well, at least it had a better story than Unforgiven. I think that was the first one he did that was a real stupid western where everyone dies.
Other than that. Well, we were headed to Sara's parents in Clymer last weekend and just about the time we hit Salamanca (about 60 miles from Hornell) I noticed some white coming out the back of the car. I'm like. Hmm, wonder what that is... Flat tire, frozen brake, rear diff out of fluid... Seemed odd that the car was still handling fine. Got out, looked back there, could tell and then. "oh, it's coming from the front of the car. That's not smoke it's steam." So, figure I better check the temp gauge and sure enough it was just starting to peg so I shut the car off. Went up front, but couldn't tell where it was coming from with all the steam. I didn't see any obvious leaks from hoses or the radiator, etc... Noticed the overflow tank was still about full, so I unbolted it with my leatherman and poured some into the radiator. It immediately started pouring out the center of the engine. "Crud. That's gotta be either the water pump or a head gasket. Neither of which is going to allow me to drive." Looked a little more and realized the heads were farther over, so it had to be the water pump. So, called dad who luckily hadn't started painted the kitchen yet. He brought the trailer over and Mom brought the cruiser so we could still make our trip to Clymer. Which turned out to be better than we thought since Lee(Sara's brother) actually showed up for his birthday. (Thank goodness for family!).
So, that kinda sucked, but we just kept repeated... "At least this didn't happen on our 3K mile Florida trip". Though I was thinking and it seems it must have been within about 100+ miles since we got back... But it still really sucked, since besides all the vehicle switching. (Also thanks to Granny since I had to borrow her Cruiser from Sunday night to Tuesday) But, the sucky part was that I had just paid about $230 for changing the timing belt before we went to Florida, and now it was another $320 to do the same job again, but replace the water pump instead of the timing belt. Oh well, at least it wasn't on the florida trip, and we didn't blow the engine.
Either way, that's the first time we've ever had to call someone to come get us in either Subaru. Not bad since mine has 212K miles, and Sara's has about 130K.... And they're both about 10 years old...
Ahh, what else. Well we got to go to a fun Birthday party for Jake Sunday night. Though we're still waiting for one of his gifts to arrive so we can give it to him!
And of course we still VERY much enjoy seeing and holding Vivian! Though for some reason I have only really had a couple sick-free days since I got back from Florida (luckily I held Vivian during that time). But, I *think* I'm almost better again from this lingering throat/nasal thing. Got to hurry up since it's also been holding me off from giving blood. That sucks cause I probably can't get my 6 donations/year in this year. Oh well...
Umm.. Oh, I updated my laptop which is running Linux ( Simply Mepis 3.4-3 RC3) to the latest "testing" software yet again which is obviously a bit iffy. Especially since i don't know as much I should about what I'm doing. Either way I screwed it up so it required more thought. Well, actually I wasn't running the most current version and I was thinking it was about time to upgrade. So I went ahead and installed the current version for a day, but I wanted the "Mepis" version which included the KAquarium, and in general just a nice fresh clean install, so I re-did it the next day and this time just wiped out that partition. But things seem to be working pretty well, other than apparently my wireless card is now not as compatible as it was. I suppose it doesn't really matter as most likely anyone reading this won't know what I'm talking about anyway. (:
Well, hope everyone has a great day!
Anyway, I saw Transporter 2 a while ago. That one was pretty cool. Not entirely believable of course, but pretty good. The height of unbelievableness came when he takes off with a bomb on the bottom of his car. Well, he gets it off by going through a shipyard, hitting some ramp, and rolling the car as he's flying up in the air, and this crane hook whacks the bomb off the bottom of the car just as it explodes. But anyway, it was a fun movie.
Then the other night we saw Million Dollar Baby.
That was... Well.. I guess the answer is that it was good for a Clint Eastwood movie. He makes movies that get awards. Movies that are like real life and without happy endings. Well, I prefer my movies with a nice happy ending. I enjoy happiness whether it's real or not! Oh well, at least it had a better story than Unforgiven. I think that was the first one he did that was a real stupid western where everyone dies.
Other than that. Well, we were headed to Sara's parents in Clymer last weekend and just about the time we hit Salamanca (about 60 miles from Hornell) I noticed some white coming out the back of the car. I'm like. Hmm, wonder what that is... Flat tire, frozen brake, rear diff out of fluid... Seemed odd that the car was still handling fine. Got out, looked back there, could tell and then. "oh, it's coming from the front of the car. That's not smoke it's steam." So, figure I better check the temp gauge and sure enough it was just starting to peg so I shut the car off. Went up front, but couldn't tell where it was coming from with all the steam. I didn't see any obvious leaks from hoses or the radiator, etc... Noticed the overflow tank was still about full, so I unbolted it with my leatherman and poured some into the radiator. It immediately started pouring out the center of the engine. "Crud. That's gotta be either the water pump or a head gasket. Neither of which is going to allow me to drive." Looked a little more and realized the heads were farther over, so it had to be the water pump. So, called dad who luckily hadn't started painted the kitchen yet. He brought the trailer over and Mom brought the cruiser so we could still make our trip to Clymer. Which turned out to be better than we thought since Lee(Sara's brother) actually showed up for his birthday. (Thank goodness for family!).
So, that kinda sucked, but we just kept repeated... "At least this didn't happen on our 3K mile Florida trip". Though I was thinking and it seems it must have been within about 100+ miles since we got back... But it still really sucked, since besides all the vehicle switching. (Also thanks to Granny since I had to borrow her Cruiser from Sunday night to Tuesday) But, the sucky part was that I had just paid about $230 for changing the timing belt before we went to Florida, and now it was another $320 to do the same job again, but replace the water pump instead of the timing belt. Oh well, at least it wasn't on the florida trip, and we didn't blow the engine.
Either way, that's the first time we've ever had to call someone to come get us in either Subaru. Not bad since mine has 212K miles, and Sara's has about 130K.... And they're both about 10 years old...
Ahh, what else. Well we got to go to a fun Birthday party for Jake Sunday night. Though we're still waiting for one of his gifts to arrive so we can give it to him!
And of course we still VERY much enjoy seeing and holding Vivian! Though for some reason I have only really had a couple sick-free days since I got back from Florida (luckily I held Vivian during that time). But, I *think* I'm almost better again from this lingering throat/nasal thing. Got to hurry up since it's also been holding me off from giving blood. That sucks cause I probably can't get my 6 donations/year in this year. Oh well...
Umm.. Oh, I updated my laptop which is running Linux ( Simply Mepis 3.4-3 RC3) to the latest "testing" software yet again which is obviously a bit iffy. Especially since i don't know as much I should about what I'm doing. Either way I screwed it up so it required more thought. Well, actually I wasn't running the most current version and I was thinking it was about time to upgrade. So I went ahead and installed the current version for a day, but I wanted the "Mepis" version which included the KAquarium, and in general just a nice fresh clean install, so I re-did it the next day and this time just wiped out that partition. But things seem to be working pretty well, other than apparently my wireless card is now not as compatible as it was. I suppose it doesn't really matter as most likely anyone reading this won't know what I'm talking about anyway. (:
Well, hope everyone has a great day!
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Miami
Here's a better beach we found in Miami. I think it's the Rickenbacker Causeway. It runs out to another key (the name of which is escaping me at the moment). This one had some real sand and some depth to it (depending on where you were). A good bit of trash along it though. This might have been hurricane remnants though. This one also had some real seashells and things so that was kinda neat. Shadow still wanted to head back for shore any chance we gave her. She wasn't real interested in hanging out with us in the water.
Anne's Beach
This is Anne's Beach. I think it's on Islamorada. Closer to Key Largo. Nice in that there were relatively few people and it's rather open. Not so nice in that it's not really sand (more like white clay/mud) and there's seaweed growing everywhere and it's only a couple feet deep for probably almost a quarter mile out to sea. We didn't make it that far as it was hard walking through the mud/seaweed and Shadow didn't really seem to be enjoying having to swim.Lots of little crabs all over the beach as well. (presumably in the water since you could see the same sorts of little holes). And I cut my foot on something while out there. It was kinda neat though.
More Key West
It does look pretty nice in some places
Here's Sara showing Shadow the ocean. Shadow says "uhh, mom I don't know what you're thinking, but I'm not going in there."
Here's Sarah trying to push Shadow in. Shadow says "Mom, I REALLY don't want to go in there!"
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Key West
Ahh, Key West. And after the end of US1, here is the southernmost Christmas Tree.
And the Southernmost point.
And my girls standing in front of the Southernmost House
Ahh, finally made it to the ocean!
Ahh, remnants of hurricanes
Ahh, almost back to normal?
Well as usual, this didn't work out quite like I planned. I was hoping to be taking daily pictures and posting them here. I just NOW have the rest of the maps up in the blogs as we moved.
And we didn't take as many pictures as I thought we might. Probably a mistake, but oh well, we had fun!
So... I was going to put some of these pictures we took into various points when we were there in the previous posts, but it seems like that's a bit of a pain, so I think I'll just post them on here and explain them. I suppose I'd have to do that anyway.
But as for general news since we made it back. Not much. The trip went pretty smooth. We largely just relaxed the weekend after. Sara started getting a bit more congested and really wasn't feeling well until the last day or so. I ran all over the hills collecting the oil that had piled up while I was gone and had 13 pails to empty on Friday when we were back. Got to try out one of my Christmas presents, a bucket heater. It works WAY better/faster than the aquarium heater I had (1000 watts gets a lot hotter than 300). But it's not that miracle I was hoping it might be. I can't just shove it in a pail of solid oil outside when it's 25 degrees and have the entire pail liquid in 15 minutes or less. The top and middle would, but it just can't combat that much cold at the edges and bottom (or at least not in the time I was out monkeying with stuff). So the routine for the winter is still to bring the pails into the basement for a few days before dumping into the barrels.
Boy I hope this veggie stuff works well come spring... (:
And then back to work from home on Monday to get some hours in and business as usual yesterday. Though I did get to meet my new cousin Vivian! Very easy going and cute to boot! (:
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Almost home?
Well, I'm still not feeling well (and Sara had a sore throat for a while), but we made it to Ruffino's in Port Orange (after almost running into the ocean) (: We had a great time there. They have a wonderful place and we got to do some relaxing and just hang out for a while. Patti and Jerry made us a nice steak dinner, then most everyone else went for a swim.
Then yesterday we started out on our trip home. We made it here to Fayetteville, NC. Stopped at South of the Border. Interesting place. Not quite as exciting as it looked at night when we came through the first time. Looked like Vegas then. Otherwise pretty uneventful I think. Well of course, other than the length of time it took them to figure out how to check us in to the Ramada here. Apparently this place was taken over by the military as they didn't have space for all the troops coming through here (Fort Bragg I think?) and they just recently re-opened to the public. So their computers weren't set up to use our free night certificate. So I waited at the desk for an hour and then we went to dinner and after another hour I guess she had just gotten everything straightened out.
Well, wish us luck on what I hope is our last leg of the tour home! (:
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Where are we now?
OK, so this "resort" doesn't have high-speed but I'll try to get something up here.
So...
Miami, I think that's where we left off. So, we got out of the hotel and found a beach that leads out to another key East of Miami. This was a good bit better with sand and nicer stuff to walk on. However, there is a good bit of trash and stuff on the beach. But still a lot better than Anne's beach down in the other keys. Quite a bit busier as well. We were hoping New Years Day would be slow, but it seemed everyone was out enjoying the beach. We found a little bar/restaurant across the road and had a little picnic lunch on the beach and waded out a bit, so that was kinda fun. This beach had shells and things as well, so I picked up a few.
Then we headed up to Kissimmee where we are now. Didn't have too much trouble finding the place other than there being 3 (at least) Howard Johnsons on the road we were looking for ours so we had to go a ways to find the one we were staying at. BUt that's ok as it's a lot closer to Disney than the others. So it was dark, and we just got a couple subs and stayed in the Hotel.
So yesterday we went to Epcot. This was definitely a good place to go. I would have to say that was a day full of fun. Other than my feet hurting from walking all day (the curse of flat feet), but it was fun nonetheless. Shadow didn't seem to mind the Kennel TOO much at first, and didn't mind going back after a walk, but once she realized we were leaving her there a second time she wasn't too happy. And then she was HYPER HYPER to get out of there last night. There's a ton of stuff I'll probably write about the rides and such, but I think I'm going to try to keep this a little shorter for the moment as I'm not quite feeling as good as I would hope. We were going to try to go to Universal for most of the day today before heading to Ruffinos, but I seem to have some stomach/digestive issues so I'm trying to take things a bit slow. Not feeling TOO bad, but moving too much doesn't feel all that great.
So at the moment we're trying to figure out what exactly we're doing today.
But I'll still say the trip is going well!
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Continued
OK, so even though the wireless here is really lousy I got some pictures to work, so the earlier stuff is where we were for the previous posts. So... If my memory keeps up, let's see...
So we went out to Lunch with Sarah at... Hmm, the name escapes me, but it was some sort of Philly food place (Pizza and cheesesteaks), so we had some awesome pizza! Then we headed down to Naples to visit with Patti and Jerry. I think that trip went pretty much as planned, maybe missed one turn for a second. Managed to get our way in past the guard and find their place, but misunderstood part of the directions and was looking for another garage. But Evan, Jerry's daughter Leigh and her husband Johnny were out there pointing because Evan had recognized Shadow. Evan's getting to be such a skater guy (not a abad thing) we didn't even recognize him when we drove past! So we yakked for a bit, and Leigh and Johnny made us a great dinner of steak and pototoes and such! (there was some great seafood as well I'm sure, but I'm not much for the seafood) (:
Then let it never be said that Jerry lets you stay at his place for free. He just chooses unusual ways to make you pay for it. We played Blackjack. Everyone against Jerry (the house) so we all paid him. Though it was a pretty good deal. It only cost us $2.50. I'm not sure the others were quite that lucky. I just paid attention and realized that it was "real" gambling in that everyone just kept losing money so I kept my bets small so as to lose less. (:
So then we had to head off to bed so we could get up early yesterday for our trip down to Key west and back to Miami. We got up around 5 and out the door a little after 6. Messed up one turn so we headed East to Miami instead of SE towards the tip of Florida, but for all I know it's just as fast that way anyway. I wondered what was down there when looking at the map when it appeared that there was nothing down there. Sure enough it seems to be the Everglades. There's about a 60 mile stretch where it's just highway. Maybe 2 or 3 stopping areas with no services. It largely seems like the bottom of Florida is a swamp. It was also nice since it was all covered in fog and we couldn't really see where we were going, but by the time we got to Miami the fog was burning off. So then we headed down to the keys.
Well... I can't say we were too impressed. There are a couple nice spots like I was picturing where you're actually up on a bridge looking out over the ocean. But most of it seems to be just trees along the road and/or just swampy areas. A lot of the populated areas aren't too upscale looking. Key West in particular seems to be a rather downscale college-kid looking place. Not all of it, but certainly a large portion. Kind of like some of the pictures of New Orleans I've seen. (chickens running around and such.) and way too many people on Key west. The rest of the keys weren't too bad. And it was getting WAY too hot down there. Agh, we are not 86 degree weather people. And there's not much of any beaches to speak of.
We tried to stop at a couple beaches at state parks, but they said Shadow was only allowed in the parking lot. We did stop at Anne's Beach which is closer to the East end of the keys, but it's not a normal beach. It's not sand, it's more like white clay. And seaweed all over. and it didn't look like it got beyond a couple feet deep until you got about a 1/4 mile out to sea. But we did trudge out a ways and take Shadow with us. She's not too sure about that. She would swim with us when she had to and we asked her, but given the choice she always headed back for shore. but it was nice to see her swim for once. So then we headed back up to our Hotel in Miami (OK, Cutler Ridge, but more or less Miami). Sara really wanted to get out and do more, but it was rather hard to find much that we could do with Shadow and it was way too hot to leave her in the car for more than a few minutes.
So we made it back up here, got checked in at the Baymont (this is a definite nice place to stay) and tried to find a place to eat. We made it to an Ihop without getting lost and Sara got to eat at another place she hadn't been. Of course we were almost the only ones in there at about 8PM on New Years Eve. But it was nice. And they were setting off fireworks somewhere in the city. Though these proved to be startling to Sara while she was trying to sleep.
So, I think we're about up to now. We're on our way out to a beach on Rickenbacker causeway here in Miami. Hopefully this one will be a bit better. Then on up to Orlando.
I'm not sure how these pictures will post so If I can't label them in place easily I'll just tell you that they should be pictures from Key west of the Southernmost "stuff" and maybe a couple from Anne's beach.
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