Year: 2008

CJ8

Donna decided to mow the lawn yesterday evening around dusk, because it was as cool as it was going to be until about 3:00 AM this morning (and the neighbors might not appreciate it happening then), but she never did get it done. Never even started.

Because I never got the lawn mower started. After about 30 pushes of the little red button and 80 pulls on the cord thingie with no luck, I started to think there might be something wrong. The gas tank had plenty of fluid. I knocked a thin layer of dirt of the foam air cleaner filter. I removed the spark plug. AHA! The end of the plug that is stuck inside the engine was covered in an awful lot of black powder, sort of looked like a Wooly Willy face toy. I sprayed it with some brake cleaner and that got rid of the fuzz, but it was still so black that no light could escape it’s surface. I tried to small file I had and managed to turn it light gray, so I tried it in the mower again. After a half dozen pulls, I knew I wasn’t going to get the thing started.

Today, on the way home from work, we stopped in the little hardware store downtown and bought a Champion CJ8 spark plug. The lawn is now several inches shorter.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 279

Pancakes

Mom and Dad took their six-year-old son to the doctor. With some hesitation, they explained that although their little angel was in good health, they were concerned about his rather small penis.

After examining the child, the doctor confidently declared, “Just feed him pancakes. That should solve the problem.”

The next morning at breakfast, there was a large stack of warm pancakes in the middle of the table.

“Gee, Mom,” the boy exclaimed. “Are those all for me?”

“Take two,” Mom replied, “The rest are for your dad.”

I’m On TV

Early Appearance

 

My Fan Club

PhotoFunia

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 277

Bike Cam III

We rode the tandem to work today because it was the first day this week that the afternoon rain chance was less than 50%. I mounted the camera on the Photojojo BikeCam and off we went.

It was still dark when we started, so the first couple of shots were nothing more than a lot of dark with a vague yellow headlight “shadow” in the middle of the frame. The ones at the finish were lit well enough, but uninteresting. The best of the bunch, at least I think so, was the photo above from the middle of the journey where was just enough light to tell it is morning, but not enough to set a fast shutter speed.

Kind of an impressionist view of our commute.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 275

Artful Dodger

The last few days have been chock full o’ fun, the FRS have lost a bunch of games and Manny Ramirez has been all over the sports pages. There has been plenty of trade talks, Boston and Florida, then Boston and Florida and Pittsburgh. I left work at 4 PM, which was the trading deadline, and there were still conflicting reports – it was going to happen, it wasn’t going to happen. I got home at 4:30 and there was still nothing new.

I was finishing up painting in the middle bedroom around 6 o’clock when Donna came in and said, “Your friend is going to Los Angeles.” At first I thought Angels? No, it had to be the Dodgers and it was. I’ll let the real sports nuts debate over which team got the best part of the deal or the worse part of it, but right now looking at FRS left fielders, new and old, if both players continue at their present production, it looks like a wash. Player to front office relationship has improved, but, more importantly, how it will effect the clubhouse, ask me in a month.

As a fan, I will definitely miss the Manny Being Manny moments, it was nice to see someone enjoy baseball as a game, but for every phone call from the wall during pitching changes there seemed to be a missed game due to “injury” or misplayed ball in left.

Have fun in LA Manny.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 274

Looks Like It Is Coming Down On Lansdowne Street

This used to be my Windows wallpaper, until the 6th inning of tonight’s game when the Angels scored 5 runs. The FRS dropped 2 of 3 to the MFY over the weekend and it looks like they are going to be swept by LA in this 3 game series. Both Tampa and NY won earlier today, so in just a few more minutes the Red Sox will be three games out of first and only one game ahead of the Yanks. Oh, well, at least I’m not a Braves fan (sorry Mark.)

Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
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