Year: 2008

83,000 Chlorophyll Deficient Leaves

Saturday was the MMC Leaf Peeping Run of which I was the leader. We met at the Cracker Barrel over in Augusta. The restaurant was packed with people eating breakfast, but only two other couples were members of the Miata Club, seems the rest of them were just there coincidentally. After eating we headed west and north to the upstate of Georgia (with a brief foray into South Carolina) to see the colorful trees. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of us driving the windy back roads enjoying nature’s beauty, but there was just our one car from the Club, seems the rest of them were just there coincidentally.

The weather was absolutely perfect for leaf peeping and the roads were mostly uncrowded. We ended up at Black Rock Mountain State Park near Clayton, GA where the club has visited several times before on these excursions. Instead of opting for the mega-meal at the Dillard House just up the street we drove the 35 miles to Clarkesville (where the rock group the Monkees are from) to eat at Zanzo Italian Cafe where we you get the best Italian food this side of, well, Italy. Two words: Baked Ziti.

Somewhere in northern Georgia, the Emperor zoomed past the eighty-three thousand mile mark.

We got home a touch more than 12 hours after we left it, tired, wind burned and completely satisfied. We would have gone right to bed, but seeing as we were going to get an extra hour of sleep, we opted to watch episodes 8, 9 & 10 of Season 2 of Mad Men.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 15

Buy Cheap, Get Cheap

After two years, seven months and eleven days my glasses broke. For the last few days they have felt loose on my face and I needed to keep pushing them back on my nose. On Tuesday night I finally took them off and looked at them. On the right side, the part between the hinge and the lens (I’m sure there s a technical term for it, but I don’t have a clue what it might be) was bent outwards making the ear piece flare out. Hmmm, seems as if all it might need is a slight bending back. These a nice frames and they are made out of titanium or some exotic metal that bends but doesn’t break, so there should be no problem. Right?

Wrong. As soon as I applied any pressure the frame snapped right where it meets the lens, apparently that part is made out of cheap cast aluminum. Because the glasses are so light I was able to make it through the work day with the glasses on my face on Wednesday with just one earpiece no problem, nobody even noticed (or they did and didn’t ask because they were uninterested in hear my probably long winded explanation) and after work our first stop was the eyeglass place. The girl took my glasses and said, “Let me see what I can do.” Then disappeared into the back. About 5 minutes later she came back out with my glasses complete with two earpieces. They just didn’t match, so now if you look at me from the left side nothing is different, but if you look at me from the right side it looks like I have a different set of glasses. Fortunately because of the thinness of the wire frames, when looking at me head on, the difference is barely noticeable. Come January, when the new year’s medical flex spending kicks in I’ll be getting new glasses.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 12

Abandoned

In the episode number thirty of eighty-two flashback we are at the hospital where Shannon’s father has died. In typical TDTVS fashion he was killed in the very same car accident that almost crippled the woman who would become the future Mrs. Jack Sheppard after he chooses to save her instead of him, the other driver. Off island we attend Adam Rutherford’s funeral and on island Shannon visit’s brother Boone’s grave before chasing off into the jungle where she is ultimately shot and killed by the returning raft sailors and tail section survivors.

A Case Of Mistaken Identity

Every Wednesday the local Firehouse Subs comes out to ASCO and sells subs. For the past month or so Donna and I have been splitting a large Italian on white with no mayo, except for yesterday, for a change we decided to try a Hook & Ladder.

This month, as he does sometimes, my boss decided to have his monthly communications meeting on a Wednesday and treat us to lunch. I got to the room about 5 minutes before the meeting and grabbed a sandwich so I could take half to Donna at her desk. When I got back to the conference room everyone was there except for one. His sandwich was sitting right there and I kidded, “How long to we have to wait for him to how before I can have his sandwich.”

When our strangler did arrive he took some hits for being late and that if he hadn’t gotten there when he did Brian was going to eat his sandwich. He unwrapped the sub, took one bite and said hey this isn’t what I ordered, “I ordered an Italian.” I said, “Me too.” “On white with no mayo?” “Yep, me too, what’s your label say?” He looked and said it reads, large, white no mayo, Hook & Ladder…and Brian.

Ooops. I was so used to getting the Italian Sub that I didn’t read the whole label on the sandwich, I just grabbed. Here I was teasing about eating this guy’s sub and all along I was eating it.

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

…And Found

(29 of 82) If this episode was a movie I would have to label it a “Chick Flick.” In the off island flashbacks we get to see how Sun and Jin met in Korea and on one side of island we get a little bit of Jin wondering about Sun and on the other side of the island a lot of Sun wondering about Jin.

Homeless

Currently there is one TV show that I make an effort to watch “live” and that is House. Every Tuesday at 8:00 PM I tune the TV to Fox and enjoy. This morning, approximately 12 hours after the appointed time, I realized that I forgot to watch. Damn, now I have to stay away from Polite Dissent. Hey, wait a minute, I’m downloading Mad Men torrents, what’s one more?

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 8

Everybody Hates Hugo

(28/82) In the flashbacks we see how Hurley’s life changed when he won the lottery and on the island we see how it changes when he is put in charge of the food stash found in the hatch.