Month: May 2006

Hope She Thinks They’re From Me

plantSub-Titled: That’s The Last Time Donna’ll Let Me Do That Unsupervised

It’s coming up on Mother’s Day, so if you’ve got one, better start planning a gift. It is time for us to pick out some flowers or a plant to be delivered to my Mom in Connecticut. We always used to do flowers, but somewhere along the way Mom mentioned she hated to throw away the flowers after they got all ooey. She suggested we get her a plant, something that could be transplanted and enjoyed for more than a week or so.

For the last couple of year’s we have been buying and sending the Mother’s Day plant using the internet. Usually we do this together, because being a guy, I can’t always be relied upon to pick out the best gift. This year Donna let me try on my own, after all it is for my Mom. Not being much of a shopper when it comes to these sort of things, I usually pick whoever has an ad running on the front page of Yahoo. This year’s lucky recipient of our business was proflowers.com. I picked out a nice large 6″ potted Ventricosa Heather plant in a decorative tin basket for $30 (+ $10 for delivery.) When I showed Donna what I had bought she was pleased. Then she asked me what I put on the card I told her, “Happy Mother’s Day, what did you think?” She then replied, “Did you put ‘Love Brian & Donna’ on it?”

Oooops.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 130

Global Warming – Bah!

We just came back from a friend’s son’s baseball game. Donna had turtleneck under her jacket, I had two t-shirts on under mine and we sat huddled under a blanket. The temps were in the upper 50’s and it was misty, so we left after the 5th inning because we were c-c-cold.

We still rode home with the top down though (the windows and the windblocker were up, plus the temp knob was 3/4 of the way hot.)

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 128

Soggy Sunday

Soggy SundayI took one last picture of Neon in the company parking lot on Friday. Tried a couple of panorama shots, but those really need a tripod to work well.

Pretty much spent the day inside because of the rain. We did venture out around noon to get a Firehouse Sub and then do the weekly grocery shopping. The sun made a brief appearance around 3 PM, but didn’t stay long.

There is a threat of a car drive after the West Wing at 9 PM, but that is dependent on the rain staying away long enough. (It did.)

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 128

TAC

ASCO was recently awarded the biggest contract ever in the company’s history. Caterpillar has picked us to make a series of 4 valves that will go on every one of their diesel engines starting next January 1st. The government has tightened the diesel emission regulations and our valves will take the sooty exhaust and send it through some sort of afterburner to clean it up. The folks from Caterpillar have been in the plant for most of the week going over how and where we will build their product.

On Thursday they gave us this huge flag/banner about 9′ x 15′ in size with the Caterpillar logo on it. Early Friday morning it was given to a couple of the maintenance guys to hang from the ceiling at the end of the hall leading into the assembly area. A couple of minutes after they had finished hanging it I walked by on my way into the cafeteria. There were a couple of other people looking up at it, so I did too and this is what we saw:

TAC

I walked into the back and asked the maintenance supervisor about the TAC flag. He said, “You mean CAT?” I replied, “I thought that was what it was, but the flag was hanging backside out and upside down, so it looked like TAC. Maybe we should get it hanging right before the Caterpillar representatives come in, see it and decide maybe we weren’t really capable of assembling their valves correctly.”

Mobile Bill Pay & Long Distance Lunch

Forget automatic debit, forget paying online, we do things the old fashioned way – with a check. But then we throw in a twist, we ride our bicycles around town and put those checks in the drop box at the cable company, the power company and the city (for water & sewage.) We tacked on a few extra miles by exploring some of the rapidly expanding sub-divisions on the southside of town and ended up going a little over twelve miles on the tandem.

In celebration of having our Miata back we decided to go to Maurice’s BBQ for lunch. Big deal you say, BBQ, well the closest Maurice’s is in Lexington, SC about 50 miles away. It was in the upper 70s with a bright blue sky and some fluffy white clouds for contrast, a day that was tailor-made for a convertible drive. One hundred mile trip at 25 MPG and with gas at $3 a gallon we spent twelve dollars to get a $14 lunch. You can bet the trip was worth every penny.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 127

Catch Me If You Can

During today’s visit to the cancer center I was sharing the waiting room with a little ol’ lady. She was obviously a cancer patient because there was no hair under her butterfly festooned hat. She sat in a wheelchair and was doing a crossword puzzle. When she wheeled across the room she didn’t use her arms she just kept working the puzzle and pulled herself by moving just her feet on the ground.

Donna called me down two doors to the lab area where she was waiting on Margo the nurse to come back. She showed me her numbers and they looked pretty good, but the doctor wanted to give her one more dose of the Nuepogen. When the nurse came back in she started to load up a needle while Donna tried in vain to bargain her way out of the shot.

As Margo was about to stick Donna’s arm the nice ol’ lady wheeled herself to the lab room door with her feet and asked if she could go yet. “Nope,” replied Margo, “I have to take blood for a test.” Our lady protested, “But you said I didn’t have to.” Sorry said Margo, the doctor forgot to write in the orders, but he just told me he wants it done. To which our butterfly hatted lady said, “Catch me if you can.” With a big smile on her face and a wink took a couple of shuffle steps forward moving all of 8-10 inches.

It took a full minute before the laughter died down so that Margo was composed enough to give Donna her shot.

Cinco de Mayo

Most people don’t know that back in 1912, Hellmann’s mayonnaise was manufactured in England. In fact, the Titanic was carrying 12,000 jars of the condiment scheduled for delivery in Vera Cruz, Mexico, which was to be the next port of call for the great ship after its stop in New York.

This would have been the largest single shipment of mayonnaise ever delivered to Mexico. But as we know, the great ship did not make it to New York. The ship hit an iceberg and sank, and the cargo was forever lost.

The people of Mexico, who were crazy about mayonnaise, and were eagerly awaiting its delivery, were disconsolate at the loss. Their anguish was so great, that they declared a National Day of Mourning, which they still observe to this day.

The National Day of Mourning occurs each year on May 5th and is known, of course, as Sinko de Mayo.