The Plentiful Vintage

I am very tired right now. I woke up an 4 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Blech. I'd gone to bed at 10, so I did get some sleep. I don't understand why this only happens to me on weekends. On week days I always manage to sleep till the alarm goes off.

---
So first I went into work and spent about four hours wrangling computers in the server closet. We have two servers that are meant to be rack mounted, but until today they never have been. The problem is that while our rack cabinet is deep enough to hold them, it is not deep enough to contain the rails they ride in. The rails are about an inch longer than the rack cabinet is deep. I would have to remove the rear door of the cabinet so the rails could stick out the back. The problem is that, like the cabinet's front door, the rear door has a lock, the key to which has apparently vanished from the face of the earth. I have the key to the front door, but it doesn't work in the back. So I wound up having to remove one of the cabinet's side panels, and then unscrewing the lock mechanism from the latch from behind.*

* The annoying thing about all this is that removing the side panels was a piece of cake since they're fastened with only four screws screwed in from the outside of the cabinet. Really makes you wonder how useful those locks are in the first place.

Once I got the rear door removed, and the rails and servers installed, I also had to remove the front door of the cabinet. The space is so tight that if I closed the door, it would press up against the fronts of the two servers, blocking the vents through which the cooling fans draw fresh air.**

** If I ever find the guy who sold us this cabinet, there are going to be words... and possibly the use of a baseball bat.

---
I stopped at the Davisville Library on the way home, and while checking out a book there was informed that a book I'd requested was waiting for me over at the main library in Wickford, so I drove over there, too. Afterward I headed home, had lunch, and then drove down to the bike path to take a ride. Once I got there I remembered*** that I'd taken the bike out of the truck earlier in the week so there'd be room in back to haul some trash away, and that the bike was just then sitting in my living room. So I drove back home, got the bike loaded, and then drove back to the bike path. Sigh.

*** After looking in the back and seeing it wasn't there.

I did nineteen miles at just under 15 mph, a remarkably good time considering I hadn't ridden since last weekend. Right now my legs are probably stronger than they've ever been in my life. My times have been really fast for the last couple of months. I even hit an all time high of 15.5 mph on a ride about a month ago.

---
After the ride, I mowed the lawn, probably for the last time this year. At least that's what I'm hoping. After I finished I let the engine run until it used up the remaining gas in its tank so that it'd be ready for winter storage.

Now to take a handful of ibuprofen and head to bed.

Sci Fi Channel Has a New Name: Now, It’s Syfy

Plans call for Sci Fi and its companion Web site (scifi.com) to morph into the oddly spelled Syfy — pronounced the same as “Sci Fi” — on July 7. The new name will be accompanied by the slogan “Imagine Greater,” which replaces a logo featuring a stylized version of Saturn.

I remember being dumbstruck when Esso became Exxon. The scary thing here is that someone at NBC paid some consultant a metric shitload of money to come up with this. When HP split off its scientific division they paid a million bucks or so to whomever it was that came up with "Agilent." It was supposed to hint that the new company would be an agile version of Lucent. Of course, Lucent went into the toilet not long after, obscuring the reference. Now the only thing Agilent reminds one of is that it sort of rhymes with flatulent.

Snagged from septembergrrl, a list of questions apparently designed to show college kids exactly how privileged they are. What ever.

( If your parents read to you when you were little, you may be an upper-middle-class privileged... )

Two bizarre items culled from the the Griddle.

First, remember the Lehigh Valley IronPigs? Apparently there's a motorcycle club down in Texas called the Iron Pigs™, who've trademarked their name, and are challenging Lehigh Valley's use of "their" name. I'm not sure what the grounds for challenging will be, since I don't see how the person on the street could mistake a AAA baseball team for a bunch of bullying ex-cops on bikes, but what do I know?

---
Second, when the grim reaper gets a post-it with your name on it, there's not a whole lot you can do about it. Bob Cartwright, a friend of flight instructor Tyler Stanger, was telling everyone who would listen that Stanger had invited him along on the fatal flight that took the lives of Stanger and Cory Lidle, but he couldn't make it. It appears that the gravelings finally caught up with Cartwright on Tuesday, when he and two other men were killed in the crash of a light plane in California.

Catching up from a busy weekend.

Note to self: if you're going to NJ to register your new vehicle, don't wait until you're in White Plains to check to see if you remembered bring your paperwork with you, so that you don't have to drive all the way back to frelling Rhode Island to get it!

Started bright and early Friday morning. Left for NJ to register the truck at about 7:00. It was a great ride, no traffic at all. Then, at around 9:30, on 287 in White Plains, it suddenly dawned on me that I didn't have the paperwork to, you know, actually register the frelling truck with me. I had it in my hand as I was getting ready to go, but put it down on the counter when took a last trip to the bathroom, and NEVER PICKED IT UP AGAIN! This despite reminding myself not to forget it as I put it down.

Got off 287 at the first available exit (#4), but discovered there was no on-ramp going the other way. Drove around Westchester county (White Plains, Scarsdale, Valhalla) for a half hour looking for an on-ramp. Finally got pointed in the right direction, and burned serious rubber getting back home, fuming all the while. Pulled into driveway just after noon, grabbed the documents, and headed back out, still fuming. Up until now, I had made great time - no construction delays, accidents, little old ladies, nothing to stop me from driving as aggressively as possible. I figured I'd still have plenty of time to get to the DMV in Morristown before closing.

Nuh uh. Lessee, there was the construction delay in Darien (had to get off 95 onto Rt. 1 for an exit to get around it). Then there was an accident on the other side of 95 in Greenwich that everybody on my side of the road decided to slow down to look at. Huge construction delay on this side of the Tappan Zee Bridge chewed up more time, and then it was bumper to bumper on the other side as well. Then, as if all that wasn't enough, the skies opened up with a huge downpour for about fifteen minutes just as I was getting to NJ.

It was about 3:45 at this point, and I knew there was no way to get to Morristown by 4:30. I had once gone to a DMV office in Bergen County, not far from the Parkway, but it was years ago, and I only remembered approximately where it was. Didn't even remember exactly what town it was in, but I was desperate by this time so I got off the highway and started looking. Drove in the general direction I remembered and kept an eye out for signs. Finally I saw one of those little county road signs that shows the directions of the various town, and saw 'Wyckoff', and remembered that that was the town. Drove there, but couldn't find the little shopping center it was in. Finally found someone walking around in the rain, and asked directions. Turns out I had driven by it a couple of times, but they had built a newer shopping center in front of it. Walked in the door at 4:20. Wonder of wonders, there was no line, and being Friday night, everyone working there was extra helpful, because they all wanted to get the frell out of there for the weekend. The woman at the window even filled out some of the forms for me. Yay! Fifteen minutes later I was out the door with plates in hand, albeit a thousand dollars poorer.

When I'd planned this trip, I had told Alex I'd probably get down to his neck of the woods in the early afternoon, so he was sort of wondering what the hell had happened when I finally called from the payphone near the DMV. Got back onto the Parkway and headed south. More bumper-to-bumper from Bloomfield through East Orange, when it goes to four and then five lanes. From that point, it was smooth sailing down to Old Bridge. Alex, Durrah, and I went out for dinner and beer, and then I dropped them off around 9:30, and headed for home. Easy, fast trip back, got home just before 1 a.m. It was still wicked hot in the house, so I decided to check natter while waiting for the a/c to cool off the back room a bit. Next thing I know, it's 3 a.m., and I'm still up. Turned in, didn't fall asleep until about 4. And since I had to get up at 7 to help Victor and Lea move, that sucked. More on that later...