All posts by cs

junket

The conference organizer promised that during the noon break a “luncheon would be served”…

The ‘luncheon’ turned out to be a conciliatory box with shrink wrapped sandwich and a piece of fruit inside. Bait and Switch. I ducked out for a proper meal at the Tortilla Factory uptown. What the hey! I’m on an expense account! A true road warrior would be proud. However — when it came to my car rental I blinked. Smertz asked if I wanted to accept/decline the insurance (a 49 percent daily price enhancement). The ultimate test of your expense account vitality is to let THEM refill the tank at $4.99 per gallon.

Now if we can just get them to offer a lunch-box upgrade…

Dynamic Duo Comparo

The 350Z is a looker. We couldn’t resist a closer inspection of this new stunner and so we visited our local store for a test hop. The ‘track’ model that we drove had the huge alloys with the Brembo (racing) brakes. With 287 horsepower advertised it certainly could put them to use! I must say that I wasn’t that thrilled. The shifter was precise but the clutch loose and sloppy. The exhaust note did not inspire and the transmission had a gear whine just like the original Z’s from 1970. There would be some learning curve to be smooth with that long throwclutch. The emission controls don’t allow it to idle down even though the throttle is closed. Lack of space for my roller bag or even the grocery bags was a non-plus unless you were to lean clear forward over the rigid body torsional structure roll bar under the rear hatch.

So, we tried Honda’s offering, the S2000. This is a sports car that’s been out for awhile but I must say that their engineers got it right! By contrast, you feel like you are wearing this ride. Easy to handle. Point and squirt and with the tach in the sweet zone (between 6000 and 8000 revs) it makes awesome Formula One metallic mechanical song underhood. Not a Miata. Never bothered to preview the radio. The driving experience was enough. We came away wearing big grins after this one.

prey

You know the feeling as you round the bend and there he is — The Law, in his cruiser with radar gun.

They can be anywhere. I popped the trail hill (in my running shoes!) and coming up the other side is an officer (on his bicycle!). No I wasn’t busted for speeding but illegal begal just the same. My jogging partner was sans leash. We passed each other in only a blink. The cop was preoccupied with the navigation, negotiating the ruts and maintaining the momentum. He glanced at me and I saw the look — and the brain registered the violation but he was out of whack. Unable to coil and strike right then. His snap-shot (friend or foe) image of my dawg was a potential distraction. After all, he is a police dog, (friend) but the encounter was brief and in another instant we were all out of range.

save often

Geeezz. I hate it when that happens… A critical mistake that ruins the project. I’m restructuring a contact database that has become large and complex. I want to separate the data into several tables. I will build a relational (one-to many) db using an SQL query to join them. The trick is to import the data to the new structure. It’s tedious. I drafted several queries to display the data (so far so good) and then wrote some coldfusion code that would allow one to edit | insert | delete. That’s where I screwed the pouch. My insert statement had a slight syntactical error (you should hardly notice) which, instead of updating the fields of a single record, overwrote the records of the ENTIRE database. Damn. There’s no un-do button for this one…

Keep incremental back-ups.

pack rat

I’m an ebay virgin. I know that ebay is a household term and I do consider myself to be a computer power user. But up until now, I’ve never used the service. My first auction is now in progress! It sure seems like fun. Except for the part where I’m selling my ‘old junk’ at 38 cents on the dollar(!?*!)…

These things have been in my tool box for 20 years. May they find good use and preservation with someone else.

job one

This was due month for the annual safety | emissions inspection and I was successful in starting out early, and got the drop on everyone else with the same intent. I was congratulating myself when the tech approached me in the customer lounge with the unwelcome news that my vehicle had failed 🙁 He was unable to complete the emissions test because my OBD II connector was dangling loose underdash when it should have been secured in its bracket. (tisk tisk – picky, ain’t he?). I knew about the mounting. It disintegrated the last time I plugged in my laptop cable to download a pesky intermittent airbag fault code that I’m tracking. Cheap plastic. “They [factory] need to make the bracket more [robust]. You cannot be the first with this problem…”, he told me. I knew it would be fruitless to argue that my connector link was still serviceable regardless. He was only following guidelines from some thick manual no doubt and wouldn’t bend without a 2×4. So, I collected my rejection slip and departed with the realization that what could have been a 50 minute chore could now easily burn the better part of the day what with chasing down the part at the dealership cross town (assuming that they even had it in $tock and could $pare a man to install it). I drove back to my shade tree garage hopeful to discover remedy. The first object that I laid eyes on was an old paint tray(!) with an 90 degree angled metal foot that would do nicely as a bracket. With a saw, drill, and some assorted screws, washers and nuts, I robbed the piece and fashioned two new brackets that would mate up with the original in place of the broken plastic tabs. In the end I don’t know if I really saved any. I pondered as I measured and fabricated ‘that if my twin had raced for the parts department at about the same time would he handily return with a new bolt-in-part before I had finished’. I suppose there is some personal satisfaction however in my spit ‘n bailing wire fix. Finally, I made my way back for the re-test and it was over and done with in time for a late lunch. Until next year then!

end of year

Whereas yesterday was fraught with minor setbacks, failures and fires to put out, today just “clicked”. The missing suitcase was presumed lost for good but Hooray! American just advised it found ( JFK ). Even the baulky Christmas software, which was ‘this close’ to being reboxed for return, finally loaded on the old windows 95 machine ( would not co-exist with the 3D card on the newer ). The new CD player went into the Bug turn-key and played beautifully. The family summer holiday plan is coming together. We’re on a roll. Let’s keep it goin’.

humiliation and embarrassment

stuck in the mud

Not that I can claim never to have got-stuck-in-the-mud — what we have is a lapse in driver SA (situational awareness)when said driver tried a short cut out of the parking spot. With some fairness, it was less than ideal parking lot design with the curb and planter anchored on the right side and not visible when entering or exiting the vehicle. After a cell call plea, I arrived with a floor jack and some 2 x 4 boards and was able to extricate this mess. Tell tale mud tracks leading out of the trap showed that ours wasn’t the first or only car to land into the pit. I left the wood pieces for the next poor fellow. Fortunately, there was no physical damage or animals harmed during the creation of this blog. Only mental anguish and some hand wringing and a lesson learned. Okay kids, let’s be careful out there.

Miami

dinner key

End of journey. We retire with the door to our veranda secured open. This way we experience the full effect of the sea going experience. The wind and waves and fresh air is soothing. The gentle roll of the ship enhances the dream. We arrive in the port of Miami before sun light and I am awakened by the foreign sights and sounds of automobiles and traffic on the downtown expressway. Shock. I close my eyes and lay in my bunk replaying wonderful visions from the last seven days. You know — usually at vacations end you think: “okay, that was fun, but now I’m ready to go home”. Not this time. We had such a blast. We all wish it could go on and on.