Fish.

The Twitter gadget has not been working for a while, so for now, I've replaced it with what I'm calling a Koi Pond, click to feed them. What fun.

Weather Sucks.

I hate that there are no subtle weather changes in Minnesota, it goes from nice to shit in literally a couple of days. Can we at least have some happy time at 60 degrees for a few weeks, then slowly, very slowly lower it from there? Nope.

We went from upper 70s to snow in less the a couple of weeks, insane, & we can never go the other way, it can't have been snowing & then suddenly it's in the 70s a couple weeks later, hell no.

I love to sit on my porch at night, it's warm out, don't need a jacket, t-shirt's fine, maybe a light breeze, & the crickets are chirping, that's heaven. Winter is a dead season, cold, gray & mostly lifeless. As an adult, no more do I get the joy out of freshly fallen snow, no, I think I have to go out & drive in this?! Are you kidding me?! I probably have Seasonal Affective Disorder! I could deck anyone who's all gung ho about winter.

I for one sure live in the wrong state, but there's nothing I can really do about it as my ideal state would be Hawaii. I mean there are regular Joes working there like you & me right? I'd still come back here for the summer, I mean I do like Minnesota, just not in the winter.

Now I just need a ton of cash to pull it off... solid plan.

Venture Northward!

I'm heading northward for a get together with some friends. It'll take approximately 20 minutes shy of 3 hours to drive about 50 miles less then what it takes to go to the Twin Cities. If you're good it takes a little over 2 hours to get to the cities. You got to love northern Minnesota driving... well, actually anything other then I35 can be a pain... & even then... It's almost 10 years into the 2000s, where are the damned fling cars?!

Car History Part III

Well, so now what?! Not having a car stinks when you always are driving places. So I got my self a new one, a Black 2008 Chevy HHR & I like her a lot. When I test drove her I knew she was the one. Lets see were she takes me.

A short story.

There, the ancient human probe has sat, alone, on the baron landscape looking to the heavens diligently, resiliently, for billions of years. Archiving & transmitting what her sensors have gathered for endless millennia, never knowing if her data was received.

On the stage of Universe, life, death, creation & destruction have all played out before her as galaxies collide, but her final task is finally at hand. The end is near, the Red Giant has come for her, to engulf her as he dies.

She embraces his face, the dying Sun, & Earth is no more.

Car History Part II

After the Golden Nugget debacle it was time to get serious, a white 2001 v6 Chevy Malibu with a spoiler & alloy wheels. I would later regret the v6 status during the big gas hike, but otherwise she was a fine car. Less then a week or two she got side swiped by a most likely drunk driver, the worst of the damage being a busted side mirror, she was fixed. Then some time later I got into a fender bender where I was t-boned by Saturn into the drivers side's back door, we were both on the way to our jobs. No injuries, and I guess it was mostly my fault, I didn't pause long enough at a yield sign, but they did admit that there was poor viability, so the same thing still might of happened if he had the yield sign, who know. So she was in the shop for about a week, maybe two, can't remember, but I got to drive a red Dodge Grand Caravan, and it was actually pretty cool. When I got the car back I feet so low to the ground.

Other then these things she was great, until the coolant warning light came on. It seems as I remember a section of tubing, a valve or some part of the cooling system was leaking, the part was cheap, the labor was not. This was because it required the removal of the engine, I actually had the money, I got it fixed, and shortly after that the coolant light came on again. So I take it back, I he tells me that "oh, there's another one on the other side that's probably broke, and it's going to cost another 600.00 or so dollars..." Are you kidding me?! The thought NEVER occurred that hey maybe, because the part is so cheap, maybe, just maybe, since we have the engine out, we should perhaps check on the other one?! Nope. Needless to say I did not have them fix it, I simply kept the coolant topped off.

I should have returned & just laid into them but it pissed me off so much. So the topping off of the coolant was a bit of a hamper & pretty much cut down on her reliability & trust factor that she'd get to where I needed to, but she did for the most part, she even made it over one hundred thousand miles.

Then after I got her last oil change I stopped using her more & more because in addition to her coolant leak, she now had an oil leak. So there she sat in my driveway for a while till one day I find that she's been given to a friend of my mother's because his car was dead. I was only put off a bit by this a little, and didn't get as as angry as one should be I guess. I mean, she's my car, 100%! But the prospect of getting some money for her soften the blow, at least that was the theory.

I've only seen about 100.00, needless to say repair bill mounted, culminating with the death of her engine... so, don't know if I'll ever see another dime for her and for some reason the name Judith Sheindlin keeps dancing around in the back of my mind... hmm...

Car History Part I

Now that I am eyeballing for some new wheels, it's time to look back, way back, back into time...

First, a little prehistory, when I was young, before my parents divorced, they owned a Silver 1976 Chevy Pick up truck, I believe it was a 1500, & a pale yellow 1976 Chevy Nova. Then my mother owning the following: 1985 Dodge Aries, 1992 Chevy Corsica, 2006 Kia Spectra, & currently a 2008 Kia Optima. I drove every one.

Now, for my very own car fist car, I dubbed her "the Golden Nugget", a 1987 Pontiac Sunbird Turbo. I called it the Golden Nugget not because she was nice, but simply because she was gold, she lasted only 2 weeks, the diver side door wouldn't lock, the radio presets would erased anytime you turned the care off, & don't think the oil had been changed since 1987, the oil cap was wired shut.

Then she died on me, in the middle of the road, I had to push her into a gas station parking lot, there was an incline & she almost rolled back into traffic. Anyway, one of her pistons cracked, to repair it would have cost triple what I paid for it, ($125). I'm still waiting to get my money back.

Next time, something a little nicer.