The Plentiful Vintage

With all due respect to certain nimrods in the House, it seems to me that the best way to support our troops would be to get them the hell out of harm's way.

I spent over a grand getting the truck repaired yesterday. The drive train was making metal-on-metal noises that were rapidly getting worse, and it was vibrating as well, so that needed to get fixed. While it was at the dealer, I had them do a bunch of other little jobs, all of which turned out to be ridiculously expensive. They replaced the windshield wipers ($25), and the broken third-door latch ($100). The killer was the frelling ABS sensor that failed over a year ago. That was $450. Had I known that going in, I would've never even mentioned it. I actually prefer good old fashioned non-ABS brakes, which is what you have when the sensor isn't working. Scheduled maintenance was another $200. And the busted universal joint that was making all the noise? That was under $200, cheap at the price.

The door latch really bugs, because I probably could've gotten one at a junk yard for ten or twenty bucks. It's just this cheap piece of plastic that appears designed to fail. This is the first American car I've owned since, hmmm, twenty-five years or so, and I'm not at all impressed with the quality of GM's product. It's nice to look at, and usually rides nice, but there's a shoddiness beneath the surface. It's only got 62,000 miles on it. This is the second universal joint I've had to replace. I've already replaced the battery. The door latch snapped off in my hand. The weather stripping along the driver's door leaked like a sieve until I added a second strip. $450 for a frelling sensor?!? My beloved Subaru didn't start needing repairs like this until it was well past 100,000 miles. Next time I'll change my own damn wiper blades.

Anyway, that was yesterday. Tonight is a night for Mexican coffee, and quietly contemplating how nice it will be to see these clowns go out of business because they can't compete.

"I don't mind the negative press (well, actually, I do, but I try to ignore it), but it is really wearing out the family. No wonder people don't go into public service. This country is devouring itself; the 24-hour news cycle is numbing our ability to think for ourselves." -- Michael Brown

Brownie... buddy... the reason people like you go into public service is because no one in the private sector will hire an unqualified git like you for any job that requires actual skills.

I finished Gaiman's American Gods a week back, and really liked it. It's sort of the book I was hoping Winter's Tale would turn out to be off Tale's early chapters. I liked Gods a lot better for a couple three reasons. First off, Gaiman doesn't fall in love with his own prose. Mark Helprin wrote a lot of beautiful prose just for the sake of writing beautiful prose. A lot of it did absolutely nothing to advance the story, which bugged the heck out of me. Second, Gaiman actually provides an ending, rather than having the book just trickle away incoherently. Finally, he actually explains what is going on, and ties up various loose ends in a satisfactory manner, something Helprin never did. Tacking on an epilogue that states "draw your own conclusions" just doesn't cut it. Anyway, if you haven't read it yet, do. I see that there's a sequel coming soon, and I'm looking forward to it.

---
I'm currently reading a couple of Wodehouse books, one a collection of early stories, the other the novel Right Ho, Jeeves. I've seen all of the Laurie and Fry Jeeves and Wooster episodes, so I'm well familiar with the goings on of the Wooster social circle, but it's fun to see them in their original form.

---
DeLowe threw a one-hit shutout through eight last night before leaving because of a blister, beating the Reds, 4-0. It was an impressive performance. It does seem that his contention that he's fixed his mechanics may be accurate. That'd be nice.

---
Best ninth inning commentary during a baseball watch & post ever:

Since Schmoll is warming up and Lowe is picking on a blister as well as sitting on the bench with his belt undone and his fly open, I would say that there will be a pitching change in the 9th.

I may need to use that as a tagline...

---
Alton Brown tried to kill me yesterday. I tried making his recipe for ribs. I have a recipe I developed over the years that is a bit like his, but I never actually wrote down any measurements for the rub, so since he has a system, I figured I'd give it a try. His system is simple 8:3:1 + 1, 8 parts brown sugar to 3 parts salt to 1 part chili powder, plus one part other spices and herbs. As I said, this is similar to my own recipe, except for the 3 parts of salt. I rarely added much salt at all, if any. It turns out 3 parts of salt is a helluva lot of salt, even if I wasn't supposed to watch my intake. I only had two of the ribs, and not only did they taste way saltier than I like, but I could just feel the jolt on my blood pressure. His brining instructions tend to produce really salty meat, too.

---
It's summertime, and once again my town's water system is comtaminated with E. Coli. This is the fourth time in five years. Fortunately, the base where I work, and my end of town have their own systems, so I don't have to boil my frelling water like the majority of the folks around here. It does affect the Dunkies where I get my coffee, though. They're using bottled. The state ordered the town to begin chlorinating that part of the system a year ago. They procrastinated until this past week, a couple of days before the contamination was found. Now, part of the problem is that the water towers involved are, like, sixty years old, but you'd think that someone in the water department would show some measure of intelligence about this. Those folks have let the system fail four times in five years. The first time could happen to anyone. Even the second, maybe. But the third and the fourth? Especially after the state ordered you to chlorinate, and you dragged your feet? Sadly, civil servants don't get fired. They get pensions and full bennies from my ever increasing taxes. Feh.

In the midst of this, there is, of course, a shortage of bottled water, exacerbated by folks who now refuse to trust any water in the town, even in the newer systems.

---
Russia’s Biggest Spammer Brutally Murdered in Apartment

I have to admit, there are times I have fantasized about beating a random spammer's brains in with a rusty shovel. Yesterday I received spam with the subject line "Congratulations! I'm Hispanic!" WTF?

---
Also, it's wicked hot out, and the a/c in my office doesn't work very well.

Had fun in Somerville last night. Went up to Ellen's to watch Farscape with the Buffistas. We watched Bottle Rocket first, which was quirky and fun. Farscape was the first part of a two-parter, and ended, as Tom W noted, with a cliff-hanger involving an actual cliff. Was fun helping to explain some of the back story to the people who were new to the show.

Driving up only took about ninety minutes. There was minimal traffic, and I'm starting to get a feel for where things are in Somerville. Going home was a nightmare. They were doing some kind of work on the I-93 bridge, so they took four lanes of traffic down to a single lane. Then they did it again right after the tunnel. Yeesh! No doubt these are the same swinging geniuses who are doing the planning on the Quonset project. Took two+ hours to get home in the middle of the frelling night. Plus the muffler blew out just as I was leaving Ellen's. Very, very loud.

Went to Midas first thing this morning, and had a new muffler put in, along with an oil change. $222. They also had to weld the pipe immediately behind the catalytic converters to close a crack. It's a temporary fix, but it's better than paying six hundred bucks to replace the converters on a car with 170,000 miles. Much incentive now to get serious about looking for a new vehicle. I really do need something new before going to Canada in August.

It was kind of a crappy day out. It stopped raining around noon, but it never did clear up. After I got back from Midas, I did some clean-up type stuff in the basement. Cleaned the chain saw, then installed a stationary tool wheel set on the woodworking bench, so I can push the bench to wherever I need it and then set it in place, instead of having to haul it about. Very handy. Tomorrow I need to get the piles of stuff off of the table saw, so I can start working on the bookcases.