Month: November 2007

70,000 Sunrises

Sunrise Which is over 191 years worth, neither I nor the condo balcony I was standing on when I took this photo will ever see that total, the Emperor won’t make that many either, but it had traveled over that number in miles by late this afternoon.

Donna and I went to bed around 9:30 last night so we were up at the crack of dawn, literally. After breakfast we postponed our usual walk on the beach because it was quite chilly and windy. Instead we hopped in the car and drove to Bluffton, Hardeeville and Ridgeland to take Post Office Portraits. Our little loop brought us back to HHI where we ponied up the $5 for a day pass to nab the missing Harbortown branch PO on the Sea Pines Plantation.

Along the way we made several stops, ostensively to shop for the few remaining folks on our Christmas list, but I think Donna and I made out better than anyone. Our last stop was a used book store near the entrance to Sea Pines where we both got a couple of hardcovers to read. One of the ones I got was the latest Robert B. Parker Spenser novel which some one had just brought in today.

Right next door to the shopping center the bookstore was in was a Sticky Fingers restaurant. The one in Augusta had catered a lunch at ASCO when we had some visitors in and those who had the food said it was good. Being lunchtime Donna and I, let the car sit and walked the 100 feet over. It was 12:30 on a Saturday and there were two cars in the parking lot. Both in the back. One cook and one waitress? I was a little hesitant to eat at a place were we were the only customers, but it was a chain, so it couldn’t possibly be awful. It wasn’t. We split a lunch combo plate which consisted of 2 big ribs, a pulled pork sandwich, some beans and some slaw. Everything was tasty except for the slaw which was bland which means we would, if the opportunity strikes again, eat at a Sticky Fingers again.

Late afternoon found us at Donna Horsman’s house for some grilled chicken, roasted new potatoes, green beans and salad. We hadn’t seen Donna since attending Jerry’s memorial service back in May. She, with the help of her daughter, has continued to manage the 18 condos at the Beach & Tennis Resort and will for at least one more year. I think it helps keep her busy and mind off the loss of Jerry the Condo King. I guess I’ll have to start referring to Donna as the Condo Queen and Lisa can get the “title” of Condo Princess.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 481

Internet Withdrawal

Hot TatersTonight we are relaxing in Unit B-327 of the Hilton Head Beach and Tennis Resort. If the sun was still up we would have a great view of the beach, but it is 8:00 PM in November and pretty much all we can see is the blue glow of the largest swimming pool on the island. There are over 50 crystal clear cable channels to choose from, but no Internet access. What? Whatever will I do? Blog to a text file and upload it a day late from a hot spot somewhere on the island.

On our way down we took the scenic, AKA long, way here and picked up 4 Post Offices. First stop was a return trip to Ehrhardt. The first time we attempted the PO in this town a festival filling the main street and blocking access to the place thwarted us. This afternoon worked out great as I got to park right up front and the sun even cooperated in being behind me. Next were two (out of the three total) Walterboro Post Offices we had left to do. The first time in town we got the main downtown PO easy, but a big wreck on I-95 prevented any attempt on these northern two. One is a little country store in Canadys where not only can you mail a package, but you can feast on hot taters and chicken or buy bait and tackle. As far as the USPS is concerned this is a Walterboro Post Office with a zip code of 29488-5753, but the defiant sign outside the Penny Pincher Mart says it is the Post Office for Canadys, SC 29433. We somehow missed the Jacksonboro Post Office (could have been the vague Google map), but did manage to find our way to Green Pond.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
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You Get What You Pay For

The DC adapter for the Dell Laptop started to go wonky about a month ago. The cable near the plug was breaking internally from all the hanging it does off the back of the computer. I worked around it for a while, but it got tiring trying to prop it just so that the wires inside touched and it didn’t run down the battery.

I checked the Dell site for a replacement and they wanted $69.99 + S&H for the adapter. Yikes! Hunted around the web for a generic replacement. I found a few places and decided on Ebatts.com. They had a unit, the AC-C10, for $39.47 with the shipping included (must have been on special as they want $52.95 for it tonight.) Ordered it on the 31st of October and got it November 6th, UPS ground from California.

The cords were as long as the OEM unit, but the whole thing was a lot lighter, probably mostly in the wall cord. The Dell unit has a 3-prong plug and the Ebatts unit has only two, which is an advantage in my 50 year-old house with almost zero grounded outlets. Another nice feature is it has a 90-degree angled plug for the back of the laptop which should eliminate the broken cord syndrome I had from repeated bending in between the plug and fuse block thingie.

Things were all wine and roses until last night when the battery stopped charging and the task tray icon reported time remaining as 100 times longer than it should be for my then dwindling battery power (98% 2830.57 hours remaining.) Huh? Unplugged the adapter and re-plugged it in, still the same. Ran the computer on battery for a while before shutting it off and going to bed.

Tonight when I got home from work, I started up the laptop, it said I had 53% battery with 1430.66 hours remaining. Went into the garage and got out my old Radio Shack Multimeter (it still has a needle and several scales to read from) to check the adapter. Fifteen volts. Returned to the garage and got the old AC adapter to check it, 19 volts, that’s probably the problem. Wonder if the voltage was higher when I first got the generic unit and it went bad in 9 days?

Logged onto Ebatts.com and filled out the form to return the unit for a refund. There was a place to select Check and Replace, but opted for a refund because I’m sure they think that the unit is OK as it is listed as a 15-20v part and it is putting out 15v.

With the new cord no good, I decided to try and repair the old cord. Cut, trimmed, spliced and soldered, not very pretty like, then wrapped it in duct tape. Hey, dont’ laugh, it works (for now.

Might as well break down and buy the Dell branded unit, after all, that $69.99 doesn’t look too bad compared to the $52.95 for the who knows if it’ll work Ebatts part.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 477

Wednesday Wasteland

HDR Sharon, SC Post Office

My first atempt at an HDR image. Because I only had two exposures, not necessarily shot with this process in mind, and one was really washed out (more of an accidental wrong exposure) there is no detail in the sky. I’m sure things will improve when I shoot 3 exposures 2 stops apart either way from normal with the camera on a tripod.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 476

Leave My Wife’s Alone

A woman is at home when she hears someone knock at the door. She goes to the door and opens it to see a man standing there. He asks her, “Do you have a vagina?”

She slams the door in disgust.

The next morning she hears a knock at the door, it is the same man and he asks the same question, “Do you have a vagina?”

She slams the door again.

Later that night when her husband gets home she tells him what has happened for the last two days. The husband tells the wife in a loving and concerned voice, “Honey I am taking tomorrow off to be home just in case this guy shows up again”.

The next morning there is a knock at the door and both run for it. The husband says to the wife in a whispered voice, “Honey, I’m going to hide behind the door and listen. If it is the same guy, I want you to answer yes to the question, because I want to see where he is going with it.” She nods yes to her husband and opens the door.

Sure enough the same fellow is standing there and asks the same question. “Do you have a vagina?”

“Yes,” she says.

The man replies, “Good! Would you mind telling your husband to leave my wife’s alone and start using yours?”

The Most Fun I’ve Had At Work In A Long Time

We are getting a front office update, no new cubical panels or furniture, just some new carpet, wallpaper and the trim painted a different color. They did Human Resources first and now they are continuing through the plant from right to left.

<sarcasm>Yippee my area will be second.</sarcasm> There really is nothing wrong with the way it looks now, sure there are a few places where the existing stuff is stained from use and there are a few holes, but we are a manufacturing facility, not a lawyer’s office. Six months from now the place will look nearly as well used as it does now.

I guess I should go pay attention to how HR looks to see what is in store for me, but it has got to be fairly blah, because I have been in there several times since their update and cannot bring to mind what it looks like.

I know no one else in the office is sure what the new wallpaper looks like! The room next door is first to get the rework, last night the contractor came in and removed the old two-tone gray wallpaper. All that was up this morning was the white liner paper covering the still older paneling. For giggles I printed out two colors of ‘wallpaper samples’ and tacked them to wall next to the door into my area.

Wallpaper Samples

I snagged the background from the Boston Red Sox home page on MLB.com. The idea came from my fellow front office FRS fan (thanks Gerry) and got the expected reaction from my MFY loving manager. The best part was the reactions from all the other people that pass that way each day. Quite a bit of them are obviously not baseball fans because hardly anyone noticed the real connection. I bet about half of them were actual arguing the merits of the all blue paper vs. the blue with red in it. Some noticed the socks in the pattern, but couldn’t figure out why they might be there.

The folks in the room that is all tore up, that the “samples” are in, were good sports about it and with as straight a face as they could muster, explained that that really is the choice of paper for the office remodel. Sometime in the afternoon one of the USC fans had made up a small sample with Gamecock logos all over it to add to the mix.

At the end of the day they must have tired of all the people asking about the redo because they published an FAQ and pinned it to the wall as well. It consisted of one question and one answer:
Q. Are y’all remodeling?
A. Yes

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 476

Musgrove Love

Musgrove Mill State Historic Site

On our Sunday travels, besides an old Post Office, we also stumbled on another Revolutionary War site – Musgrove Mill State Historic Site. Being a gol’ durn Yankee my conception of South Carolina was that the only war fought here was the Civil, but turns out there was much more. Must not have been awake that day in class.

And I was definitely guilty of not paying attention to history back in my school days, so this stuff would have barely rated a mention and a drive by before, but now Donna and stop when we have time. Unfortunately we were early when we got to this site. The gates had opened at 9, but the visitor center didn’t open until 10, more than 45 minutes away, so we didn’t stay. A return visit is in the offing though. Maybe after the Post Office Peregrination we will do a tour of the state’s Revolutionary War sites.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 474