Month: December 2008

The Beginning Of The End

The first show of Season 4 is number 70 with an even dozen left to go. We will finish watching all the previous shows a week and a day before Season 5 starts. It would have been perfect, finishing up the day before, had ABC not moved the season premier on me.

This flashforward (which becomes the theme for this season) concerns Hurley and the fact that he keeps seeing his dead friend Charlie from the island. Charlie has something to tell Hurley, but Hurley doesn’t want to hear it, he has to go back to the island.

Real time on the island the Losties split into two factions, most follow Jack in his quest to get everyone rescued by the people on the freighter off shore. While some choose to follow Locke to the Others old home, the Barracks, in an effort to avoid the freighter folks because, they like Ben, think that they are coming to kill everyone.

Merry Christmas

I thought I was through with my Christmas gifts, but after yesterday morning, turns out I needed 2 more.

The Cateye LED headlight we bought a couple months ago does a decent job of lighting the road in a 4 foot diameter circle about 20 yards ahead of the bicycle. That, along with the ailing Nite Hawk incandescent headlight filling in the gap between the front tire and the LED spot, forward travel is pretty well illuminated. But turning corners is tricky because the lights are on the handlebars, they only see what’s around the corner once the bike is actually turned.

Yesterday morning about two miles into our 6-1/4 trip to work I turned onto a street that turned out to to be covered with leaves. Because of the lighting setup I didn’t know there were leaves there until we were crossing over them. Coasting at about 10-12 miles an hour the front tire slipped out from under me. Before I could even get out the O in OH SHIT, we were down and skidding to a stop on the ground. What took the brunt of the impact was the right front pannier that was loaded with my clothes and I think that saved both of us from a rougher landing. We got up, checked for any serious damage to us or the bike, I reattached the pannier and we pedaled slowly up the street. Because we less than half way to work we opted to turn around, pedal home and then drive the car in.

The bike appears fine except for scrapes on the right pedals and the tape on the right side of the handlebars where they skidded on the pavement. The attachment hook on that right front pannier needed to be rebent back into its natural shape. The captain has some road rash on the right knee that makes wearing pants uncomfortable, a sore left thigh that probably got poked with the handlebar and a tender right wrist from hitting who knows what. The stoker got a small cut on her right leg and a fairly sore shoulder. Both probably have bruises that will materialize in a couple days.

The right knee of my tights was shredded in the fall so I had to order a set online today. I also ordered another LED headlight, but this one has a helmet light so that I can aim it around corners by looking that way so as to avoid nasty surprises like yesterday.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 81

Through The Looking Glass Parts 1 & 2

Episode 69 of 82 is the Season 3 two hour finale. It is listed as two separate episodes on the DVD, but it was shown on TV as one long show, so it counts as just one. It is Jack centric and off island he appears with a full beard and is distraught to near suicide by his drinking, pain pill addiction and an obituary he finds in a newspaper. When he visits the funeral home for the viewing he enters a room full of empty chairs with a coffin. The funeral director appears and tells him is the only person to show up, is he friend or family? To which Jack answers, “Neither.” On island he leads all but three of the Losties to a radio tower so they can call for rescue. Those 3 are left behind to ambush a team of Others who are coming to kidnap the women, especially Sun who is pregnant. The ambush almost works, but is finished up by a returning Hurley, Sawyer and Juliet.

For the satellite phone to work they need two things to happen, the French Chick’s radio signal must be shut down at the tower and the Other’s jamming station needs to be disabled.Ben intercepts the Losties and tries to manipulate Jack into not calling for rescue, but it just earns him a fist beating. Charlie and Desmond are tasked with turning off the jamming. Charlie knows it is a suicide mission for him because of Desmond’s ability to see the future and sure enough it works out that way, but not before Charlie realizes that maybe the rescue boat is not that after all. The show ends off island with Jack meeting Kate at an airport where he tells her, “We should have never left, we have to go back.” Those tricky producers, instead of the off island scenes being flashbacks they were flashforwards.

Christmas Eve

Tuesday we went to the local Movie Gallery to rent some flicks for watching over this 4 day weekend. We picked out 5: Kabluey, In Bruges, This Christmas, Adrift in Manhattan and Bonneville. We were off early today and TNT was showing The Bourne Supremacy, the second in the trilogy, so we watched it and then instead of watching one of our 5 rentals we dug into our own collection and watched the third installment, The Bourne Ultimatum.

Tomorrow for your Christmas gift from me to you, I’ll post a picture of my right knee. Plus I still owe a post on why we stay in Bed & Breakfasts and for Friday, December 12th from our Florida trip.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 81

Greatest Hits

Sixty-eight of eighty-two is Charlie-centric and the title comes something he is told by a newcomer to the island (parachuted on after her helicopter crashes.) Naomi tells him that his old band put out a Greatest Hits album after he “died” in the crash of Flight 815. It also comes from a list he makes of the 5 greatest things that have happened to him so far after he volunteers for a possible suicide mission to shut off a jammer in an underwater Dharma station.

Somebody Stole My Santa Claus Suit

Randy over on A Voice Wandering In The City asked what your favorite “unusual” Christmas song is and here is mine, Somebody Stole My Santa Claus Suit by the Christmas Jug Band.

Somebody stole my Santa Claus suit.
Somebody ripped off my beard, hat and boots.
Some little fatso is all dressed in red.
He even had the gall to swipe the pillow off my bed.
Now what’s my kids going to think,
If Santas a no-show, well boy, they’ll raise a stink.
But, deck the halls and what the hell,
I still got my jingle bell.
So sucker you can keep the suit,
‘Cause frankly, I don’t give hoot.

Somebody stole my Santa Claus suit.
Somebody ripped off my beard, hat and boots.
Some little fatso is all dressed in red.
He even had the gall to swipe the pillow off my bed.
Now what’s my kids going to think,
If Santas a no-show, well boy, they’ll raise a stink.
But, deck the halls and what the hell,
I still got my jingle bell.
So sucker you can keep the suit,
‘Cause frankly, I don’t give hoot.

But, where oh where is my Santa Claus suit?
That get-up set me back a bundle of loot.
The beard alone was four ninety-eight.
The box it came in was an antique orange crate.
Some body took the whole shabang.
If I find that rolly-polly mother, he’s going to hang.
But gee, I guess that’s no way to be.
He might do some good with it and all, thanks to me.
So sucker you can keep the suit,
‘Cause frankly, I don’t give hoot.

MP3

Good Thing It Was Last Monday

Even if you have forgotten about my cholesterol, my doctor hasn’t. As you can see from the most recent numbers I’m pretty much OK.

  Chol HDL LDL Trig
Goal <200 >31 <100 30-150
12/15/08 167 41 92 171
03/21/08 164 37 104 115
12/12/07 175 38 104 165
07/17/07 185 36 117 162
03/05/07 195 39 123 167
09/19/06 167 37 103 135
04/06/06 168 37 106 126
12/08/05 182 35 120 137
07/28/05 177 30 113 169
06/17/05 164 31 85 238
05/06/05 174 27 108 194
01/10/05 176 33 110 167
09/21/04 209 24 131 271

But it sure was a good thing they took blood early last Monday before last week’s high fat, high calorie snack overloading (which by the way has continued unabated these last two days) because I would be willing to bet my current numbers are a lot higher.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 79