Month: May 2008

77,000 Lumens

This morning Donna and I had our annual eye exams. First the doc shines a really bright light in your eyes while telling you to look every which way. Then one of his staff Divas of Torture drops a combination of drops in each eye which makes your pupils dilate until it looks like you have no corneas. Then once your eyes are wide ass open the doctor returns and shines a really, really, really bright light in there. Niiiice. Afterwards all you can do is spent the 5 hours inside a darkened house because a mere 60 watt bulb appears to put out about 77,000 lumens.

While entrapped indoors this afternoon I did mount all the shiny new chrome bathroom racks and such. The wall on the left as you enter the bathroom looked so good that we hated to put the door back up because it totally hides it. If it was just us we might have got away with it, but occasionally we have people over and they might not be so comfortable doing their business without a door to hide behind, so I put the door up.

Somewhere between Egypt & Guyton, GA the Emperor cruised past the 77,000 mile mark. I kept my eyes peeled, but didn’t see a welcome to Egypt sign. If I had I would have stopped so Donna could have taken my picture in front of it. I need another image to add to the Travels with Brian gallery.

Started down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 163

Lambkill

We went for a hike in the woods yesterday and purposely saved the Kalmia Trail for last figuring that it is mid May and they should be in full bloom. Some were, most weren’t. We have had such a weird spring, probably missed the peak by a couple weeks.

Finished painting the hall yesterday too. I picked a light green to go with the existing bedroom color and as a compliment to the bright green of the bathroom. It is almost too light. Good thing I had painted the trim gloss white or you might not even notice that it is green.

Today I finished painting the bright green in the bathroom. It has the opposite problem from the hallway, it is almost too bright. When you first see it you are taken slightly aback, but if you look at it for a while it is actually a nice looking color, especially against the white bead board. Tomorrow the towel racks, shower curtain rod and TP holder will get put up and it’ll be a working bathroom again. We’ll probably move back to the cooler side of the house on Sunday.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 160

Exorcising The Devil

Usually it happens in June and usually it is the MFY overtaking them, but this year it is different. The FRS almost always start strong and lead the Eastern Division until the middle of June or early July when the wheels come off and they fall from the top spot. Usually the New York Yankees replace them in first place.

This year the swoon started early as yesterday’s loss to Baltimore caused the Red Sox to relinquish first place in the division to the Tampa Bay Rays. Who? Up until this year the team from Tampa was known as the Devil Rays and for the first ten years of their existence have never won more games than they have lost, even their best year, 2004, they were 21 games below .500. If they knew all it took to become a winner was remove the Devil from their name, I’m betting they’d have done it a lot sooner.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 158

Nobody Wants Him

They just turn their heads
Nobody helps him
Now he has his revenge

I kept waiting for the song and it didn’t show up until the credits, that was my only complaint. We went over to Augusta to see the movie in a nice theater with stadium seating instead of the little shoe boxes available here in Aiken. It was showing on 5 screens with a choice of start times of noon, 12:30, 1:00, 1:30, 2:00, so we went over and shopped a bit before getting lunch knowing that when we were ready there would a movie start time waiting for us.

We finished lunch at 12:25 and with the short walk to the the theater we figured we’d see the one o’clock showing. We bought tickets, used the restroom, hit the concession stand and started towards our theater. As we did we passed right by the one showing the 12:30 running, I paused and listened. It was 12:40 something and they were still running previews, so we went inside. Caught the end of the trailer for the new Batman flick and one for another totally forgettable movie, before the screen went dark and AC/DC’s Back in Black started playing. We were lucky in another way because the 12:30 showing theater was the one showing it via DLP.

I’m a sucker for movies based on comic books and knew I’d like this movie just from the trailer. I was not disappointed and thoroughly enjoyed this movie. My wife, who still hasn’t forgiven me for making her see the Michael Keaton Batman movie and rolled her eyes at the first Fantastic Four movie, actually sort of liked it too. So stop what you are doing right now and go see this movie. Seriously. Go.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 157

Charlie Wilson’s War

Joanne Herring: Why is Congress saying one thing and doing nothing?
Charlie Wilson: Well, tradition mostly.

Julia Roberts has a throw away role, Tom Hanks is excellent, but this is Philip Seymour Hoffman’s movie and he is great.

Charlie Wilson: You mean to tell me that the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan is to have the Afghans keep walking into machine gun fire ’til the Russians run out of bullets?
Gust Avrakotos: That’s Harold Holt’s strategy, not U.S. strategy.
Charlie Wilson: What is U.S. strategy?
Gust Avrakotos: Most strictly speaking, we don’t have one. But we’re working on it.
Charlie Wilson: Who’s ‘we’?
Gust Avrakotos: Me and three other guys.

This is the second movie in a month about war in the middle east, Lions for Lambs being the other, both were interesting, thought provoking and worth a watch, but Charlie Wilson’s War was much more entertaining.

We are on vacation, but not going anywhere, so it was odd not going to work today. Even odder was going for a bike ride at eight o’clock on a weekday. We may have to start riding earlier on weekdays when not on vacation. I went to the store this morning to get some actual paintbrushes for the bead board instead of my usual foam-on-a-stick things and when I went by the corner quickie mart the price of gas was $3.72, passing by the same store tonight the price had jumped by a dime to $3.82.

I’ll be glad when the FRS aren’t on ESPN anymore and I can go back to listening on the radio because tonight looks a lot like last night. They have gone and dug a themselves a 4 run hole again that I’m betting they aren’t going to be able to dig their way out of either.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 156

Another Rainy Morning

I put the top up to drive through the downpour to get a Sunday paper. The car spent the rest of the day dripping water on the garage floor. It was also my only foray outdoors as well.

Did a little painting, did a little reading, did a little surfing and now I’m watching the FRS on ESPN trying to get back in the game against the Twins.

Hopefully tomorrow morning it won’t be raining and we can get in that threatened bike ride or a walk in the woods.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 153

Potpouri

Got a primer coat on the bathroom and painted all the trim in the hallway today, doesn’t sound like a lot, but that hallway is mostly trim. It spans from one bedroom to another with the bathroom in the middle. There is an entrance from the dining room and three separate closets. I don’t think that any of the six doors in this hallway had the same style doorknob on it, there were silver knobs and brass knobs, both polished and antique and there was even a “crystal” knob.

To make it easier to paint the trim and the doors I pulled all the doors off the walls and then stripped off the mis-mash of hardware. At first I thought maybe I would just clean all the different layers of paint off the hinges and knobs then re-install them, but decided that if we were going to all the trouble to freshly paint everything maybe we should just get some new hardware. Because of all the new shiny chrome fixtures in the bathroom I was thinking maybe we would do chrome hinges and such. Nope, one chrome hinge (1/2 of the hinges required to hang a door) was $8 and we needed 10 big ones and 4 small ones. Opted for brushed stainless steel at two bucks each. For what it would have cost in just chrome hinges we came back from the big box home improvement store with hinges, screws, a couple knobs and 5 new door knob sets.

Started down, went up, back down, up once more, down yet again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 152