Year: 2010

Christmas In October

Yesterday while on our morning break walk, with me wearing my new V-neck T-shirt birthday present, I mentioned that I had an idea of what I wanted for Christmas. A new pair of hiking boots. My old faithful pair of Hi-Tec’s were starting to look a little ratty and the soles were getting kind of worn down. I figured new boots were the perfect gift, something that I didn’t really need, but wanted and are reasonably priced (unlike most things that make my usual Christmas list.)

This morning Donna asked if there was any place locally that I might be able to buy those hiking boots. I told her possibly Academy Sports over in Augusta. She then asked, “Do you want to go over and see?” It took a couple of seconds before I finally realized she was offering not to just look, but let me buy some.

My mom didn’t raise no fool (I left home too early), so I said,”You know, there is a place here in Aiken that sells Merrell shoes, they might have something.” Not too much later I was the proud new owner of a pair of size 11 Moab Mid GORE-TEX XCR in Dark Earth.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 848

Why?

Why won’t my DVD player remember where I stopped watching the disc?

Why is the intro Universal theme music at the DVD start up so much louder that the one before each episode of Law & Order?

Why does the control panel in Windows almost always open up as large icons as I like, but will randomly appear in the detail view?

Why when renaming a file in an Windows file explorer will the file jump to the bottom of the list instead of staying put?

Why can’t I get into writing on this blog?

And now for something I don’t need to ask why about:
A coalition of medical marijuana advocates came out Tuesday against a California ballot initiative that would legalize the drug for recreational use and tax its sales.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 848

I For One Welcome Our New Alien Overlords

On Sunday a story broke that the UN had appointed Earth’s Ambassador to Extraterrestrials. On Monday morning in Washington, DC, several former US military officers confirmed in a press conference that they had witnessed UFOs tampering with US nuclear missile control sites. Then yesterday the Earth’s Ambassador to Extraterrestrials story was shown to be false. But they’re not fooling me, they are just trying to cover up a announcement that escaped before it was supposed to.

I think aliens are already here living among us and the world’s governments know it. They also know if word got out before the human population is properly indoctrinated panic would ensue and Hollywood is doing it’s level best to get us used to sharing our world. Why else remake that campy 80’s TV show V? Or remake a classic sci-fi movie like the Day The Earth Stood Still?

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 847

I Am Brian’s Arthritic Spine

Had my follow up with the ortho guy today, his diagnosis, Lumbar Spine Arthritis, otherwise know as you are getting old and things are wearing out.

Seeing as my pain level is not that bad and so far the problem hasn’t prevented me doing anything, we are going with option #1 physical therapy. I have an appointment in a couple weeks where I’ll probably get some exercises to try and maybe a heat treatment.

Option #2 is to get steroid shots right in the ol’ spine itself. He said this can be very beneficial, but I’m holding that treatment in reserve for hopefully much later on when physical therapy and OTC pain pills can’t keep up. Option #3 is surgery and I’m going to have to wait until I am somewhat debilitated before that is even a consideration.

All those years of Mom yelling at me to sit up straight. If I had only listened…

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 846

Happy Birthday

Google – 12
Avril Lavigne – 26
Gwyneth Paltrow – 38
Me – 55
Don Cornelius – 74
Jayne Meadows – 90

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 845

112,000 Rain Drops

Diet 7-UP was on sale at Walgreen’s starting this morning so we hightailed it over there to pick some up. The price of four 12 packs for $11 with a bonus of a $2 coupon for use on your next visit was about as good as it gets. We managed to make it to the store with the top down, but had to put it up to go inside, which we expected because for the first time in about a month we are going to get some rain. There were only three on the shelf, which we expected and why we hustled over there early on a Sunday, but the the guy running the place offered to check in the back, he came out with one, which we didn’t expect. On the way home the Emperor passed the 112,000 mile point, which I expected, because we went the long way home just for that reason.

We started yesterday morning with a 4 mile foray into Hitchcock Woods. They were having a “Festival of the Woods” with lots of programs, events and demonstrations. We would have liked to have seen the raptor demonstration, but knew we wouldn’t stay long enough for it because it didn’t start ’til after noon. So we just opted to hike in from one end and end up at the Show Ring where all the action was, just to see what we could see. As we got close to the ring we came across a few folks horseback riding. I thought maybe I’d snap a photo or two of them, but my camera wouldn’t come on. My first guess as to why was that the battery was dead. That guess was confirmed wrong when I opened the battery door, the battery wasn’t there. It was home still plugged into the charger. Oops.

We ended up yesterday with a 2.9 mile walk around Phinizy Swamp in Augusta with the MMC. The staff of the Swamp offer a full moon walk a few times a year, but we had the place to ourselves because we are special and one of the docents is a club member. Even though it was not the actual night of the full moon and we were stuck with just a waning gibbous with 95% of the visible disk illuminated we all had a great time. Because it was still pretty dark we thought we saw silhouettes of several types of egrets, maybe an owl and possibly an alligator. We did see a small possum as we had to use a flashlights beam to shoo him away from the boardwalk we were both were on.

Because we were a few minutes early for the Club meet up, Donna and I roamed the deteriorating parking lot of the deserted Regency Mall and grabbed 3 geocaches.

Started down, went up, went down, back up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 843