Month: August 2003

Smooth Move Mr. Cyclist Guy

As mentioned the other day, I did in fact make the Sunday paper. I had actually forgotten all about it until I picked up the paper off my lawn this morning.

A picture of the cute kid who went to Camp Sertoma that is partially funded by the sale of the license plate he posed next to was at the top and the first one written about in the article. I snagged about 5 minutes of my allotted 15, by having my picture and words taking up the second half of the article. I wish I could link you to the article, but our little paper hasn’t posted the article yet (and when they do, they don’t do pictures.)

My plate is from the Palmetto Cycling Coalition which is a statewide organization to help promote cycling awareness, both to the general public and state government. Across the top is emblazoned “SHARE THE ROAD.” In the article I am quoted as saying that I hoped that this would make people aware that cyclists are people and not just something in their way.

Cut to several hours later…On our usual Sunday morning ride with some other ABC members we are coming back into town on the last leg of our journey. I was in the front of the group of five riding along close to the white line when a pickup truck blows by fairly close. As I look up to glare at the driver, I see him gesture with his hand towards the right, as if to say get off the road. Obviously he hasn’t read his morning paper yet. Usually, I just give a friendly wave as if I misinterpreted their intention, but for whatever reason today it struck me wrong, so I gave him the finger. He is about 30 yards up the road by now and returns my one-fingered salute in kind. And his brake lights come on, but just for a second. Perhaps his wife in the passenger seat was screaming at him like mine, who was riding right behind me, was screaming at me. Now I’m hoping he didn’t read the paper because maybe he would see my smiling face (and name) and put it together that was me on the bike.

Because yesterday was so busy, when I got home last night I barely had the energy to post, let alone read my usual blogs, so imagine my surprise when I read this blurb in Will’s blog and thought how close I had come having something like that happen to me.

Splat

Nice turn out for the Bug Splat. We had 6 Miatas do the route, plus one Chevy S-10 and a Camry. There were three Miatas that didn’t participate. The OTM belonged to a couple of members whose cars are not running right now. Big engine problems for both, both basically self-inflicted. One non-participant was us, the judges, another just literally got back in town from a two week vacation and another that just popped in to say hi. The cleanest car was an easy call, as was the closest to the dot, but biggest and most was a little more difficult. Two cars were pretty covered and the same two also had a couple of large mayflies plastered on their fronts. The big bug winner and recipient of the big trophy was chosen because of the intangibles, his was still twitching on arrival at the finish and trailing behind it was a long streak of bug blood. So the other woman was awarded the most bugs prize.

Oh yeah, I changed the oil and rotated the tires this morning at 120,200 miles. I had the filter so all it cost was the oil.

Purchased Today: $7.35
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1189.59
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 213

Chasing Papi

I read the video reviews every Friday so I can get some ideas for movies to put in my Netflix queue. The Augusta Chronicle publishes about a half dozen condensed versions of the Roger Ebert review. (I don’t always agree with Roger, but I always find him entertaining.) Here is the review for the movie Chasing Papi:

A feature-length jiggle show designed to display Roselyn Sanchez, Sofia Vergara and Jaci Velasquez in a way that would make your average Maxim reader feel right at home. They play the girlfriends of the three-timing Papi (Eduardo Verastegui), and when they arrive simultaneously at his home the plot requires them to run through a lot of scenes wearing high heels and squealing with passion or fear or delight, while a stupendous amount of jiggling goes on.

The primordial man in me is intrigued by this and is trying to figure out how to “accidentally” get Netflix to deliver this movie.

Here is his full review.

Shopping Trip

With our whole day off we decided to go over to Augusta and do some shopping. Donna won a $25 gift certificate to Sports Authority and it was burning a hole in her pocket. We also wanted to go to Bed, Bath & Beyond to pick up a gift card for Donna’s Mom to take to Seattle next week as a gift for her brother’s wedding.

While we were over there we went in a few other stores looking for just the right prizes for tomorrow’s Master’s Miata Club Bug Splat Rally – read cheap. By the time we came back to Aiken it was near 2:00 PM and in the lower 90’s, but the humidity must have been down as it felt hot, not oppressive.

Tonight we drove downtown and got a dish of ice cream and wandered around looking in shop windows. Well Donna was looking in windows, I was looking for possible spots to try out the night mode on my digital camera by taking pictures of the Miata.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1181.24
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 213

1/2 Vacation Day

We only had 1 day left of unscheduled vacation and I was hoping to use it the day before Thanksgiving for the drive to eff-el-ay, but Donna won out. She wanted to take a 1/2 day tomorrow (leaving a half for November) so we wouldn’t have to go in to work at all. We now have a 4 day weekend and nothing planned, zero. Seems almost a waste to me, but then again any day out of the office is a good day. With any luck our Powerball numbers will come in on Saturday and we’ll never have to go back.

Just A Little Over Sensitive?

Got a response from my arbiter of taste. Seems he now thinks he was hasty. I think so too, but that does mean he isn’t right. There probably are folks who might find those images distasteful, but I’m sure they are very few and very far between.

Hey Brian, I came on strong. I apologize for that, and I really did mean what I said about best intentions. I realized later that I probably just took it the wrong way, I really came off pretty defensivly right off the bat. And, I did mean what I said about liking those cars too! I actually used to have a datsun Z with the barndoor headlights, had to sell it for school.. Hopefully some day I’ll get another. Anyway, my apologies. Take Care.

I’m Gonna Be In The Paper. Maybe.

Don’t worry I finished the newsletter. Print it up tomorrow at work, collate it at home and in the mail Friday, right on schedule.

I may or may not have my picture in the Sunday paper. I may or may not have my pearls of wisdom printed in the Sunday paper. I know somebody who knows somebody is how it happened.

The local rag, the Aiken Standard, is doing a Sunday feature this week on the plethora of specialty SC license plates. The reporter who interviewed me said that there are 96 different plates available with 6 more on the way. I have Share The Road plate from the Palmetto Cycling Coalition (picture is about halfway down the plate page.) I was not the only person photographed or interviewed so we will see what gets published.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1181.24
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 213