White Out

Hard RainMissed two nights blogging this last week. The first was Wednesday because I didn’t really have anything to write about. That wasn’t the case last night, I had a great topic to write about, but that topic was the reason I couldn’t blog about it.

It rained. Really, really, really hard. At one point we couldn’t see the street, 50 feet away, from the living room window because it was coming down so strong. About 5:30 the cable (and the internet with it) went POOF! As I was turning off the now nearly useless laptop, the power to the whole house went off as well.

Not 10 minutes later the clouds broke and the sun came out, so we sat around with the curtains open reading. When the sun started going down and we could barely see the words on the page anymore we opted to go downtown for some ice cream. At about the same time as we were putting on our shoes, the power came back on. But no cable.

After ice cream, no cable. I watched Blade Runner – Final Cut while Donna read. Rise and shine in the morning, no cable, so we bought a newspaper. Went for a hike in Hitchcock Woods and when we got back, no cable. Boy would I feel foolish if we were the only ones in town without cable, so I dialed the office, busy signal. Guess we weren’t alone.

This afternoon I pulled down off the top shelf of a closet, the box that held my old TV-Radio card. I was going to use the cheesy dipole antenna with in on the living room TV so maybe we could pull in a couple of the local channels. As I opened the box, the TV picture flickered and cable was back. Re-booted the router and the internet was back as well.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 80

Another Lost Miata Connection

Lost MiataFirst the actress who plays Sun is photographed with an MX-5 last month and now this time a Miata makes a cameo in last night’s episode. Not only was this a Jin flashback, but it is a flashback for the car as well.

The episode was a sneaky one that broke new ground. We have had flashback shows and more recently flashfoward ones, but Thursday was a combination of the two. They were trickily edited to appear like just one flashforward our Korean couple. A few hints in Jin’s scenes were left for eagle-eyed Lost viewers to pick up. I would like to tell you I am one of them, but I’m not, I learn most that type of stuff from reading The Lost Forum and subsequent viewings of the show.

The production folks at Bad Robot made sure to give Jin a bulky older cell phone, a toss off line about being married for only a couple months and a stuffed dragon with a reference to it being that creature’s year (2000), but weren’t savvy enough to be aware of the difference between a 99/00 Miata and an 01-05 model.

If you look closely at the headlight in the background of the above picture you will see a sharp crease in the body emanating from the upper inside of it plus the separate projector low beam and standard high beam that are the big difference in the model years. Now I know technically you can purchase a 2001 model year car in 2000, but that doesn’t happen until the last couple of months of the year and if this was really taking place in Seoul, the people would have been more bundled up for the cold weather.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 78

Post “Ji Yeon” Viewing Thoughts

I read the spoilers, I watched all the teasers, so I though I knew what was going on, until the very end.

WTF?

But then The Lost Forum explain it for me:

Jin was in a flashback to 2 months after his marriage to Sun before the island. Sun was her flashword after the island after Jin dies by means we don’t know.

Sorry To Leave You In The Lurch

Usually I fart around on the net and with about a half hour before beddy-bye time I’ll toss some nonsense here and smile at my blogging “proficiency.” I got so caught up in my blogging avoidance last night that I left no time to actually blog.

For those of you who might be wondering if I have to go out in the garage every morning with the bicycle pump and top off the left rear tire, the answer is no, I had the tire repaired yesterday.

So, the movie that Netflix said they were going to ship on Tuesday, they didn’t. It finally shipped today. To top it off it is coming from Baton Rouge, LA, so it isn’t expected to make it here until Saturday. Probably really won’t show up until Monday. This is probably the kiss of death, we won’t like it, for this movie too, the last time they pulled this stunt when we got the movie, The Good German, we hated it. To top it off it got lost in the mail going back the Baton Rouge…

Yesterday’s top count will be added into today’s and will be reflected in the footer of this totally worthless post.

Tonight is episode #7 of Season 4 of Lost, meaning more than half of this year’s shows will be over. They are only going to do 13 this year because of the writer’s strike. I’m not sure if it is after this episode or the next that Lost will be taking a break and not coming back until April to finish off the rest of the shows.

It has been three weeks since we last so Miles. Do you think he still has the hand grenade in his mouth? Ben’s out of lock-up, isn’t it about time we gave Mr. Straume a break?

All you kids go right ahead and drool over Shannon working on her tan, or Kate salvaging briefcases in her skivvies, or Sun in her blue bikini, me, I like my woman a little more mature. If only I knew whose side she was on…

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 78

I Hit The Rent Limter. Again.

Monday we placed two red envelopes in the mail. This morning I got 2 emails from Netflix saying that they had received the discs. So far so good. This afternoon I got one email from Netflix saying they had shipped one movie. Why not two? Did an email not get sent? So I checked my queue and there at the top it lists movie number 2 as shipping on Wednesday. WTF? It is not like it listed long wait or even short wait. Why the delay?

It just happened a couple weeks ago too. I mailed one back on Thursday, Friday I received the email telling me they had received the disc. They didn’t mail my next movie until Monday. Again why the delay?

I can almost forgive the one where the movie arrived back at the distribution center on December 30, but didn’t ship one out until the 2nd of January. But I can’t, because they actually received 2 movies that day with one being shipped out New Year’s Eve (which is still the next day.) Why the long delay?

My favorite delaying tactic is that whenever they get a movie back and for whatever reason, your next movie isn’t at the closest distribution center, they even tell you it will be shipping the next day from another distribution center. So not only do you have to wait 2 or 3 days for the mail instead of the usual one, but they add an extra day right from the git go. Haven’t they ever heard of the internet? It should take seconds to get the word to the next distribution center that I want that movie, not hours.

I’m being throttled, but what am I going to do, switch? Netflix is still the best fit for us and I think they know it.

Started down, went up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 75

I Guess I Should Have Opted For The Road Hazard Warranty

The car has been handling a little quirky recently and I figured it was time for an alignment. The car tracks straight when you let go of the wheel, but seems to need constant attention to keep it in the center of the lane. Almost felt like I needed new shocks, but that shouldn’t be an issue because I just had new one put on back in August.

It couldn’t be a low tire as I keep a pretty close watch on the pressure, checking it every Saturday along with the oil level. Wait a minute, the last couple of Saturdays I haven’t done it for one reason or another. Maybe I should go check. I just did. Right rear 27-1/2 psi. Right front 27-1/2 psi. Left front 27 psi. Left rear 15psi. Ruh-roh, Reorge! Dis-mounted the tire and found what looks like a small nail about 2 inches in from the sidewall. Should be able to get this one plugged, depending on how long it is. The last time I found a nail in the tread area it was so long that it tore into the sidewall. Judging by the diameter of this nail it won’t be that long.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 72

Jump

Jump At Your Own RiskThe photo to the left is proof that Donna and I went for a walk in the Woods today. OK, not really proof, I could have taken the picture months ago, but I wouldn’t say it on the Internets if it wasn’t true, would I?

The sign(s) is posted at the entrance to Crawford Fences where the kindly caretakers have placed stacks of large logs at intervals in a clearing for the horse riders to jump over. There are lots of actual fences and other log piles placed on trails throughout the 2,000 acres, but in all the time we have been walking in Hitchcock Woods we have never seen a horse and rider jump one. They always take the little alternate path around these obstacles.

I think next time we pass that way I will rip down those two pieces of wood, it is scaring off all the perspective jumpers, more people would take advantage of the jumps if they knew they could sue someone if they get hurt doing it.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 70