I’ve Got A Screw Loose
Saturday January 5th
Geez, just three weeks after the desktop PC wouldn’t turn on and we replaced it, the laptop refused to start tonight. I tried holding the power button down for over 15 seconds in case it was just in sleep mode, but nothing happened. So I tried pushing several button combinations with the same no results. I did notice that when first pushing the power button there was an adjacent light that would blink 3 times then no more, so I went to our new desktop and Googled For Answers(TM).
Best I could find said it was a possible battery issue, so I should remove the battery and plug the laptop in using the power cord to see if it would start. I was kind of hoping this would be it, as the battery is pretty much shot from use, as it can be used untethered for only about 45 minutes with having to be plugged in.
As I flipped over the laptop to get to the screws on the back, I heard something rattle around inside the case. That rattle has been there for a couple of months, but I’ve ignored it, because, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Well guess what, it’s broke. Maybe something broke off and was shorting something out?
After removing the eight screws and snapping the edges loose, there was still something holding the case together. I pried the edges apart some and could see a boss that looked like it was under the space bar that might be the culprit. That can’t be right? Flipping the laptop over, that boss was probably right under a rubber footing strip. Bingo, there was that pesky screw.
When I got the back completely off, a little black screw fell onto the desk. Hmmm, all the ones I removed were silver, this must hold the motherboard or some component in place. I looked around all the visible places a screw could go, mentally lined them up with the ones I removed get inside and that left one likely looking boss in the upper right corner. I put the screw in and it screwed right down, holding part of a circuit board in like it was made to fit there.
Turning the laptop over I saw that on the other side was…that’s right, you guessed it, the power button. The laptop powered right on now. Note to self: if something rattles, something is loose somewhere, find it and tighten it.
12 Rules For Miata Life
Wednesday February 13th
A few days ago I blogged about the “12 Rules” phenomena and I mentioned I thought it would take a while to think about the subject before I could create my own set. So, off an on since then, I have been plugging away at doing just that with a little Miata spin. I had a good start, Rule #1, but then it all fell apart. It ended up more like 12 reasons to buy a Miata, so anyway…
- It’s a Convertible – Put the top down as often as possible.
- It’s Inexpensive – Until you start adding options, every new Miata is priced below the $34,000 average cost of a vehicle in 2019. Nice 5-7 year old ones can be had for $15-20k. Of course there are cheaper cars to be had, but nothing can touch it on a cost per mile of fun.
- It’s Reliable – Well taken car of early models are still going strong at over a quarter of a million miles. And not so well taken care of examples can easily be brought to life without breaking your bank.
- It’s a Sports Car – On any giving weekend at SCCA, NASA and autocross events there will more Miatas than practically every other make of car. Even if you just drive on the street, do not buy cheap tires, they limit the fun available.
- It’s a Slow Car – And it is leaps and bounds more fun to drive a slow car fast than it is to drive a fast car slow.
- It’s a Small Car – Always park at the end of a row so at least one side will be free of large vehicles to make it easier to back out.
- It’s a Great First Car – The open cockpit will make your teen driver feel vulnerable, so they will be paying attention to trying not to get crushed by the typically much larger vehicles around them, plus it is small, light-weight and maneuverable making it easy avoid them. As a bonus it is a two-seater thereby reducing the peer pressure to do something stupid by 66% as compared to the typical sedan.
- It’s as Good as a Pickup Truck – On a sunny day. With the top down it is amazing what can be carried in the passenger seat sticking up and/or back.
- It’s More Fun with Friends – So join a local Miata Club, they’re everywhere.
- It’s Infinitely Customizable – While some consider them perfect right out of the box, there is an aftermarket for these things that is staggering, from every possible performance modification you could think of to all manner of cosmetic stuff to nice things that Mazda probably should have put on one to begin with.
- It’s Photogenic – Like babies and pets.
- It’s not a Collector’s Car – So drive it…
I’m Turning Into Howard Hughes
Wednesday March 20th
Not in money, that’s for sure, and not in almost all of his psychoses, like for instance I don’t wear Kleenex boxes on my feet or my urine isn’t stored in bottles. But for the last week, at least once a day, I tell myself that I need to trim my toenails, and each and every night I go to bed with them still untrimmed.
The fingernails I’m keeping trimmed, but probably because those get broke every once in a while in day to day living, while the toenails are usually protected from shattering by being covered by a pair of socks and occasionally shoes.
I Found The Problem With The Red Sox
Sunday April 7th
A week ago I was worried that they were going to repeat the first-to-worst trip they took in 2014. That feeling continued. By Saturday they had gone from 1-3 to 2-8!
They have been playing on the west coast, so I haven’t really had an opportunity to listen to a game. Finally, today, they had an afternoon game in Arizona that we listened to while on the porch. They won the game!
Ergo, because I listened, they won. So, now, all I have to do is listen to every game for the rest of the season and they will finish with 154 wins and only 8 losses.
Where’s That Confounded Blimp? Act II
Sunday May 5th
Two weeks ago we missed out on the Goodyear Blimp that was covering the RBC Heritage Golf Tournament in Hilton Head Island because we didn’t know what airport it was based out of. This time we knew exactly which airport it would be at.
Wingfoot 3 was scheduled to provide TV coverage for the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, NC. The official Find the Blimp page didn’t list the golf course like it did for the Hilton Head Island event, it listed the town of Chester, SC. As it happens there is a Chester Catawba Regional Airport just north of town. Donna searched Facebook for “Chester Catawba Regional Airport blimp” and there were pictures of the blimp there in May of 2016 and May of 2018.
We got up this morning, loaded some snacks in a small cooler, had breakfast at Dunkin’ and headed north. We dodged rain showers for most of the 100+ mile drive, even putting the top up for a stretch and arrived at the airport at around 10:30 AM. I pulled up to the spot that was clearly where those Facebook photos were taken and…
…No #%$&ing Blimp!
First Class Ride
Friday June 21st
For only the second time ever, we have flown somewhere 1st Class. The first was 40 years ago and the only reason we had the privilege then was because we were flying from Guam to Connecticut because my Mom was very sick and that was the first flight out. This time it was intentional.
And for the first time in a long time we opted to fly out of Augusta instead of Atlanta or Charlotte. This was intentional too, as the additional cost of the extra hop was a lot cheaper than the cost of gas for the drive, the 2 weeks of parking and the hotel stay near the airport at the bigger city.
The experience didn’t start out too first class though. When we scanned Donna’s boarding pass for seat 2D, the gate agent said hold on, we have to move you, that seat is broken. So we stood around for about 15 minutes while most of the rest of the passengers loaded. Finally, her seat was changed to 3C which was right behind my 2C. When we boarded, she said, “You take 3 and I’ll sit in 2.” I guess she figured, that way she wouldn’t have to sit next to some stranger. Turns out, she needn’t have worried, seat 3D was broken too. While not ideal, we both did get a little extra room to stretch out on the 1-1/2 hour flight. The 1st class pluses were both the seats and snacks were a lot nicer than coach, also your drink came in an actual glass instead of plastic. No real minuses except for the broken seat snafu.
On the Dallas to Portland leg there were no seat issues, so we did get to sit next to each other this time. Because of the longer trip and larger cities served the plane was substantially larger, so the seats were larger and nicer. Our included meal service was served in real dishes with real metal utensils. While the food wasn’t restaurant quality it was pretty good. The pre-meal snack was a serving of mixed-nuts, but not just a little foil packet of them, it was a small ceramic dish of heated ones.
The nicest thing about 1st Class experience is the boarding. It is great that you get on first, but the only having to wait for like maybe 6 other people to move before you are on the jet way heading into the terminal is the bomb.
So, all in all, was spending 1.7 times the cost of a coach ticket to get nicer boarding, snacks and seats worth it …. maybe.
Brian Versus The Giant Lizard
Saturday July 13th
This morning we were enjoying the screened porch and watching the Tour de France on the laptop, when Donna noticed something moving in her peripheral vision. When she saw what it was she jumped up. I turned to see what she saw and it was a giant gecko (or maybe a skink) crawling along on the screening, inside the porch.
It was requested that I remove the offending reptile. I went out to the garage and grabbed a pair of work gloves, a one quart pitcher (normally used to water plants) and a clipboard. My plan was to corner the sucker, force it into the pitcher, cover the top with the clipboard and escort this huge, Godzilla-like, beast outside.
I have exaggerated the size a bit, but this thing was more than twice the size of any we have seen around here before. It was probably 6-1/2 to 7 inches long, tip to tail, and it had a body diameter about the size of a Marks-A-lot.
After a couple of misses trying to get the lizard into the pitcher it became clear I needed something with sharp corners, not something round, because it kept evading me by slipping between the lip of the pitcher and the screen. Back inside. This time I returned with a rectangular piece of Tupperware. On my first attempt I almost had him (or her) but then he (or she) abandoned the screen and took to running along the floor hugging the back wall.
I side stepped around it and opened the door to the porch. I tip-toed back around where it was hiding, under the table that holds the portable gas grill, came at it from that direction, hoping to force it outside. We chased each other back and forth a couple of times until, surprisingly, it climbed the wall and ducked under the wood wall that closes the porch off from the old roof line.
As yet, our enormous lizard interloper has not reappeared.
Most Likely For The Last Time
Sunday August 25th
We went away for the weekend to Hilton Head. Most likely for the last time.
Way back in 1997 when a shop supervisor was wondering aloud to his production planner how to list his and some other owners condos for rent on the internet, a side hustle for yours truly was born. The supervisor was Jerry, the planner was my wife Donna and because I was dabbling in coding HTML she volunteered me.
Jerry and I hashed out a simple design for a front page with just a sub page for each individual condo. It started small, with just his condo and a few others of owners he had befriended. Over the next couple of years Jerry would add a few more condos as word spread. He and his wife Donna would go down to HHI from Aiken practically every weekend remodeling places and his business of managing condos took off.
In 1999 Jerry retired and he and Donna moved down to Hilton Head and at its peak they managed a couple dozen condos in the one complex and they personally owned three of them. All the while me and my Donna were going down a couple three times a year to take pictures for updating the web site. We always got comped a weekend in a condo and always a nice dinner out. What started as an acquaintance and business relationship had blossomed into friendship.
When Jerry the Condo King passed away in 2007 at the age of 71 his wife continued on with the business. And for the past dozen years Donna the Condo Queen has continued our, at least, yearly trips down for web page updating. But because it was just her doing the managing, the booking and some of the cleaning, the 25 condos has slowly dwindled down to nine. This summer Donna, having turned that same 71 years old, has decided it is time to smell some roses and will no longer be managing condos starting January 2020.
With no real web page updating left to do, other than a thanks for the business place holder page, and our possible move to Oregon, we went down for one last free weekend in an ocean front condo on the beach and a nice meal and visit with Donna the, soon to no longer be, Condo Queen.
We are not beach people at all and probably would have never set foot on Hilton Head Island at all, but we will be eternally grateful to Jerry and Donna for giving us the opportunity over the last twenty-two years to watch the sunrise over the Atlantic. To walk along the wide sandy, usually uncrowded, beaches. To watch the dolphins frolic in the surf and the pelicans glide gracefully overhead. And most of all we will remember fondly the joy of their company.
Hey, Ho, Saint Joe
Sunday September 1st
A person we had met at the Spring Steeplechase wanted to see it the weekend before it went on the market. She was looking for a place in this neighborhood and wanted to get in it because every time she noticed a house for sale around here it sold before she could get in it.
Our realtor said that it would sell in a week.
Our across the street neighbor said, “You’ll have no trouble selling it.
A random neighbor we really don’t know well, saw us outside a couple weeks ago and said, “I’m surprised. I expected a Under Contract sign by now.”
As of last Thursday the house has been for sale for a month. In that month we have had less than 10 people come through to look at it. Our realtor held a Realtor Only open house and maybe 10 folks showed up (all from her company…) and no one has of yet stepped forward big sacks of cash.
While having dinner with some friends, who coincidentally have their house for sale too, they mentioned that they had ordered a statue of Saint Joseph from Amazon to help them sell their house. Donna and my response was, “Huh?” Turns out this is a whole thing.
Of course their house has been for sale for 3 months and they have reduced the price a couple of times, so they might be getting a more anxious than we are. I’ll let you know in late October if we buy our own statue of Saint Joe.
Its a Small World After All
Tuesday October 22nd
On our last day of driving we went 283 miles from Carson City to Klamath Falls, 211 of those miles were in California and for the most part were on very rural forested roads. The biggest town we passed through was Susanville with a population of around 18,000. The rest were small little places, I hesitate to call them actual towns they were so small, named Hackamore, Newell, Ambrose and Buntingville.
Just outside one of these kinds of places, Adin, population 272, we stopped at a little gas station called Juniper Junction for a nature break. There was one other vehicle there too, getting gas, but we didn’t really pay attention to it. We both went inside and Donna asked the clerk if they have a restroom and was given the key, attached to a small plunger so it wouldn’t wonder off in a pocket, and pointed around outside to the other end of the building. As we were leaving the store we could hear another individual ask about a restroom as well, so I turned and said, “Follow us.”
As we walked by the car gassing up I noticed a familiar looking license plate. Donna went into the bathroom leaving me and the guy outside, where upon I asked him, “Is that SUV yours?” He replied, “Yes.” So I pointed at the back end of our Mini and said, “Small world.”
I launched into our story of selling our house and moving to Klamath Falls and that it has been a long and scenic trip, but were happy to be near the end. He told me that it sure is a pretty drive, but all his family and friends said he was crazy to drive all this way instead of flying. He lives in Duncan, South Carolina and was returning there from Klamath Falls. He was in K Falls because he had just attended the funeral of his father, who was a lifelong resident there.
I apologize for the earworm, if in fact the title of this post effected you like it did me.
30th Miataversary
Thursday November 7th
Thirty years ago today on a cool November evening Donna & I drove over to Augusta after work in our 1981 Honda Prelude (which looked remarkably like this.) Donna drove the Prelude home alone. I drove home in our brand spanking new 1990 Mazda Miata (which looked remarkably like this.)
Ever since that day we have always had a Miata in the garage. Except for this year. Tonight the Miata is in someone else’s garage. Back in Aiken awaiting our summons. Thank’s for babysitting David.
Weekend Wrap
Sunday December 1st
On Black Friday, we, along with quite a few Klamath Fallsians, went shopping. And while most everyone else was looking for bargains at all the retail stores, we went to Fred Meyers to do our usual weekly grocery shopping.
On Small Business Saturday we walked the mile and a quarter into downtown. Not really to shop though. We had purchased some advanced tickets to participate in the city’s Annual Chocolate Walk, a fund raiser for the Disabled American Veterans organization. A total of 30 downtown businesses were participating. After getting our wrist bands we visited a couple of places on the way to the furthest spot and the place we were going to have lunch.
That out of the way, we started the trek of visiting as many of the 30 businesses as we could to collect chocolate treats. A few places were handing out just store bought chocolate candy and we certainly didn’t turn any of it down. The businesses are in competition to be voted best treat and some places go above and beyond to make some delicious homemade treats, this the real draw. The both of us agreed that the fresh made truffles offered by an Avon store were the best of the best. Some of the other yummy treats included several barks from pretzel to peppermint, fudge, popcorn covered with white chocolate and a thick drink made with heavy cream and shaved Italian chocolate. Oh my. Felt like trick or treating for adults.
We visited several businesses that we never knew were there. A few of which we will be returning to for any help we need for decorating our new house once we are in it. About two thirds of the way through we stopped eating the chocolate treats and started putting them in the small paper bag they gave us at the start. For various minor reasons we missed just 4 places.
Along with the Chocolate Walk there were 15 places doing something called Shop Small, several of which were on the walk too. For every $10 you spent you received a raffle ticket to be entered into a drawing for several prizes ranging from gift baskets to a seven day trip. We ended up with just 4 entries, which pales in comparison to the 2 folks who stopped into the bike store and bought high-end bicycles netting then over 200 entries…
As we walked back up the hill to our rental spot the weather turned much cloudier and cooler. And after changing into comfy clothes, we looked out the window and were treated to a windy white out of snow. By sundown we ended up with about an inch of the white stuff that covered up everything we had shoveled off on Wednesday.
On Football Sunday, where we typically watch 3 NFL games back to back to back, before we even got to the early game we had to go outside in the snow and do some cleanup. Yesterday’s 1″ of snow was followed up by another 2″ overnight. Donna started by shoveling off the sidewalks and a path to the Mini and then I took over by sweeping snow off the car and cleaning up our make-shift driveway to the street.
Donna looked at me during this and said, “I’m still not as tired of doing this as I was raking leaves in Aiken.” To which I replied, “I don’t remember complaining about raking leaves for the first few years we lived there. Give it time.”
More than likely all this snow will be gone before the end of this coming week anyway, after tonight’s upper 20s low it is supposed to be above freezing, even at night, until next Sunday.