Nothing worth mentioning happened today.
What a great day it was!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
My Great Day of Futility!
I left the house this morning with a wonderful sense of purpose. I had my To-Do List (complete with contributions from my lovely wife) and a plan for how I was going to get it all done.
Come to find out, I should have just stayed in bed and called in sick!
2 miles from Eastland (100 miles west of Fort Worth) my perfect plan flew out the window!
This is what you call a blowout!
D'oh!
An 8-inch gash on the bottom, a 5-inch gash on the top and no earthly idea of how it happened! But, if I may say so myself, thanks to some pretty impressive driving skills I was able to contain the gashes to the tire and not the rest of my car!
But no problem, right? Just throw on the spare, buy a new tire in Eastland and I'm probably only 2 hours behind schedule at the most!
If only the jack that came with my car was able to raise my car high enough to put the spare on! Oh yeah! I jacked that thing up as high as it would go and I still needed another 3 inches before I could bolt on the spare!
D'oohhh!
So, I spent another hour and a half on the side of I-20 dodging shoulder-hugging 18-wheelers and waiting for Roadside Assistance (our corporate AAA) to bring a bigger jack! So much for being only 2 hours behind.
Nevertheless, around 1:30 I was rolling again and thinking that if I could get a new tire pretty quick in Eastland then I could probably still salvage part of the afternoon. Too bad the only tire store in town didn't have my size tire . . . "But we can have it here for you by tomorrow morning!"
D'oh! D'oh! D'oh!
The closest store that had the tire I needed was a Firestone in Brownwood about 45 minutes away. OK - I can do that! I'll drive to Brownwood - buy a new tire - see a couple docs and be on my way home! Too bad the Firestone had about 20 people ahead of me by the time I got there!
D'oh! D'oh! D'oh! D'oooohhhhhh!
Finally around 4:30 I headed home from Brownwood having not seen any doctors because I had to wait so long at Firestone. By the way, is there anything more pointless than reading a Car & Driver Buyer's Guide from 3 years ago?
10 hours, 300 miles and no doctors after I left this morning, I finally pulled back into my driveway. Totally beaten. Totally exhausted. Totally ready for this day to be over and done with. I should have gone straight to the bed that I should have never gotten out of in the first place . . . but I didn't!
I thought Macy and I could use some fresh air so I decided we'd go run some errands together. But between putting Macy in the backseat and walking around to my door I somehow locked my keys in the car . . . with Macy in the back seat!
D'(Not very nice words spewing from my mouth!)oh!
When will this day end?!?!?!
Once I regained my composure, I called Roadside Assistance (again!) and about 45 minutes later some guy showed up and popped the lock on my car in about 20 seconds - literally! I could have sworn Macy shot me a glare as she jumped out of the back seat!
Come to find out, I should have just stayed in bed and called in sick!
2 miles from Eastland (100 miles west of Fort Worth) my perfect plan flew out the window!
This is what you call a blowout!
D'oh!
An 8-inch gash on the bottom, a 5-inch gash on the top and no earthly idea of how it happened! But, if I may say so myself, thanks to some pretty impressive driving skills I was able to contain the gashes to the tire and not the rest of my car!
But no problem, right? Just throw on the spare, buy a new tire in Eastland and I'm probably only 2 hours behind schedule at the most!
If only the jack that came with my car was able to raise my car high enough to put the spare on! Oh yeah! I jacked that thing up as high as it would go and I still needed another 3 inches before I could bolt on the spare!
D'oohhh!
So, I spent another hour and a half on the side of I-20 dodging shoulder-hugging 18-wheelers and waiting for Roadside Assistance (our corporate AAA) to bring a bigger jack! So much for being only 2 hours behind.
Nevertheless, around 1:30 I was rolling again and thinking that if I could get a new tire pretty quick in Eastland then I could probably still salvage part of the afternoon. Too bad the only tire store in town didn't have my size tire . . . "But we can have it here for you by tomorrow morning!"
D'oh! D'oh! D'oh!
The closest store that had the tire I needed was a Firestone in Brownwood about 45 minutes away. OK - I can do that! I'll drive to Brownwood - buy a new tire - see a couple docs and be on my way home! Too bad the Firestone had about 20 people ahead of me by the time I got there!
D'oh! D'oh! D'oh! D'oooohhhhhh!
Finally around 4:30 I headed home from Brownwood having not seen any doctors because I had to wait so long at Firestone. By the way, is there anything more pointless than reading a Car & Driver Buyer's Guide from 3 years ago?
10 hours, 300 miles and no doctors after I left this morning, I finally pulled back into my driveway. Totally beaten. Totally exhausted. Totally ready for this day to be over and done with. I should have gone straight to the bed that I should have never gotten out of in the first place . . . but I didn't!
I thought Macy and I could use some fresh air so I decided we'd go run some errands together. But between putting Macy in the backseat and walking around to my door I somehow locked my keys in the car . . . with Macy in the back seat!
D'(Not very nice words spewing from my mouth!)oh!
When will this day end?!?!?!
Once I regained my composure, I called Roadside Assistance (again!) and about 45 minutes later some guy showed up and popped the lock on my car in about 20 seconds - literally! I could have sworn Macy shot me a glare as she jumped out of the back seat!
Poor Macy - nobody remembered her birthday and then she was locked in the back seat of a car!
I'm going to bed now but I'm going to be very careful. With my luck, I could be severely injured by my electric toothbrush and have to be taken to the Emergency Room by ambulance only to find out that the dentist on-call had a blowout on the way to the hospital!
PS: Does it bother anyone that there's a guy out there who's really good at popping car locks in less than 20 seconds?
(I'll do QOTW when I regain cognitive function!)
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Now I Know I'm A Daddy
Cycling Rule #1: Don't wear headphones while cycling - it makes it hard to hear other cyclists, cars or large dogs giving chase.
Since I don't listen to music while riding I'm reduced to singing songs in my head - which usually isn't too bad.
Unfortunately for me, I couldn't get this song off auto-repeat during my ride today!
By hey! At least it was the "U2" version!
Since I don't listen to music while riding I'm reduced to singing songs in my head - which usually isn't too bad.
Unfortunately for me, I couldn't get this song off auto-repeat during my ride today!
By hey! At least it was the "U2" version!
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
I Feel The Need For Speed!
In response to my recent speeding ticket(s), my Dad-In-Law sent me a great link: SpeedTrapped.com
The first thing I have to comment on is how funny it is that rather than giving me some line of "Wade, you really should try to slow it down, Mmm-k?", he instead sends me a website that shows me where I can (and can't) get away with speeding!
For Christmas this year, I think I'll ask him for a radar detector just to see if he actually gets me one!
As for the website, genius! It's a map of over 21,000 known speed traps in the US! (Sorry, Russ, Canada doesn't seem to be included - I guess you guys don't have a problem with speeding!)
No doubt police departments everywhere are furious that this super-confidential-double-secret information has been released into the public domain. Nonetheless, I have no choice but to assume that this is an all-inclusive listing of speed traps and will therefore drive accordingly!
(Had I only known about this website when I rented that Mustang!)
Thanks for the link, Dad-In-Law! Now I'll get to Brownwood even faster!
Sunday, June 03, 2007
QOTW: The Stuff Room
I gleamed this week's question from a recent discussion I heard on the radio about how Americans are obsessed with size . . . particularly when it comes to the homestead!
The guys on the radio mentioned that the most expensive house in the Dallas/Fort Worth area has around 20,000 square feet. And at the moment only 2 people live in it - although it requires a small company of people for upkeep!
I'm sorry, but there is a point when a house becomes too big!
But I started wondering, "If I could add a couple hundred square feet here or there to our current house (for practical purposes, of course!), where would I put it?"
I think the enemy to any house and home is clutter. I hate clutter. I hate disarray. I hate stacks of stuff - although I am currently tolerating several boxes of sales material in my office because I have nowhere else to put them . . . I need more closet space!
I have to hand it to our builder, they did a pretty good job on creating plenty of closet space. But can you ever have too much closet space? It's just amazing how all the stuff you accumulate over time seems to suddenly overflow and take over a room.
And that's all it is - just stuff. Stuff we never will use - stuff we never have used. But all stuff that we think we will eventually use. So we keep it and stuff it in every nuck and crany in our house until finally there's no room for the stuff that we really do need to keep!
I guess that's why there are so many storage units being built around here . . .
___________________________________________________
"If you could add square footage to any ONE area in your house or apartment, which area would it be?"
Total Votes: 25
The Living Room: 12% (3 votes)
The Dining Room: 4% (1 vote)
The Kitchen: 12% (3 votes)
The Master Bedroom: 8% (2 votes)
The Bathroom: 20% (5 votes)
The Closets: 36% (9 votes)
The Pantry/Utility Room: 0% (0 votes)
The Garage: 4% (1 vote)
The Front/Back Yard: 4% (1 vote)
The guys on the radio mentioned that the most expensive house in the Dallas/Fort Worth area has around 20,000 square feet. And at the moment only 2 people live in it - although it requires a small company of people for upkeep!
I'm sorry, but there is a point when a house becomes too big!
But I started wondering, "If I could add a couple hundred square feet here or there to our current house (for practical purposes, of course!), where would I put it?"
I think the enemy to any house and home is clutter. I hate clutter. I hate disarray. I hate stacks of stuff - although I am currently tolerating several boxes of sales material in my office because I have nowhere else to put them . . . I need more closet space!
I have to hand it to our builder, they did a pretty good job on creating plenty of closet space. But can you ever have too much closet space? It's just amazing how all the stuff you accumulate over time seems to suddenly overflow and take over a room.
And that's all it is - just stuff. Stuff we never will use - stuff we never have used. But all stuff that we think we will eventually use. So we keep it and stuff it in every nuck and crany in our house until finally there's no room for the stuff that we really do need to keep!
I guess that's why there are so many storage units being built around here . . .
___________________________________________________
"If you could add square footage to any ONE area in your house or apartment, which area would it be?"
Total Votes: 25
The Living Room: 12% (3 votes)
The Dining Room: 4% (1 vote)
The Kitchen: 12% (3 votes)
The Master Bedroom: 8% (2 votes)
The Bathroom: 20% (5 votes)
The Closets: 36% (9 votes)
The Pantry/Utility Room: 0% (0 votes)
The Garage: 4% (1 vote)
The Front/Back Yard: 4% (1 vote)
Friday, June 01, 2007
Say What?
I recently had lunch with a doctor's office where we talked about gross food that nobody likes to eat - which got me wondering if the topic came up because they didn't like the lunch I brought in.
(Black-Eyed Pea, by the way, happens to have great food - especially for take-out!)
One nurse said, "The one thing that always makes me gag is 'vy-anna' sausages."
[phonetic spelling mine]
I sat there for a moment trying to figure out what in the world 'vy-anna' sausages were - and then it dawned on me. She's talking about vienna sausages! But who in the world pronounces them 'vy-anna' sausages? It's not like this nurse had a Texan accent or a southern drawl.
Just as I was about to call her out on her misspeak, another nurse said, "Oh I know! I hate 'vy-anna's' too!"
OK, wait! Are they really pronounced 'vy-anna' and not vienna (like the city in Austria) sausages? Am I the one who's been mispronouncing them all these years?
Vy-anna or vienna - either way, they make me gag, too!
Yuck!
(Black-Eyed Pea, by the way, happens to have great food - especially for take-out!)
One nurse said, "The one thing that always makes me gag is 'vy-anna' sausages."
[phonetic spelling mine]
I sat there for a moment trying to figure out what in the world 'vy-anna' sausages were - and then it dawned on me. She's talking about vienna sausages! But who in the world pronounces them 'vy-anna' sausages? It's not like this nurse had a Texan accent or a southern drawl.
Just as I was about to call her out on her misspeak, another nurse said, "Oh I know! I hate 'vy-anna's' too!"
OK, wait! Are they really pronounced 'vy-anna' and not vienna (like the city in Austria) sausages? Am I the one who's been mispronouncing them all these years?
Vy-anna or vienna - either way, they make me gag, too!
Yuck!
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