Sick Dreams

09.02.2004

Having a cold the past few days, I tend to have interesting sinus medicine induced dreams when I sleep long enough to dream. Tuesday night, while running a slight fever no less, I dreamed I was at my old high school, which had merged with the public library building, and I was running around planting pencil shaped nuclear devices throughout the school. After planting them, I would run outside to see Jerry and make sure everything was ok. He would look at the building through really cool binoculars that had all kinds of high tech displays and doo-dads, and then tell me I had planted the nuclear pencils wrong and that I had to go back and try it again. And I would. And it would still be wrong. I woke up before sticking a nuclear pencil in Jerry.

Last night I could tell I was getting better. No nuclear pencils. Last night I was the Master of Time. I could make time go fast, or I could make time go slow. No making of the time going backwards. Now the interesting part here is that I was in a dark room with nothing in it, obviously the best place to practice my mastery over time. No clocks, nothing in my surroundings was moving. So how did I know I was the Master of Time? I just knew. I willed time to go slower, and I could feel the time move slower. I willed the time to move faster, and again I could feel the time move faster.

There's a good chance I may actually have this power, because I remember willing time to move forward faster so that I could sleep through the night for once, and last night was the first night in a week that I managed to get up only once. I am the Master of Time!

Permalink dreams

Peeled Taters

08.31.2004

This past weekend I went up to Lebanon (the city, not the country) to see Mom. It was my first trip up since she's become a permanent Tennessean after selling her house. It ended up being a shorter trip than I had originally planned due to my sinuses plotting a scheme inside my head to stop everything up.

One of the things that's amazed me about the great town of Lebanon is the existance of Tater Peeler Rd. I think it's because it's not Potato Peeler Rd, and even then it would stick in my mind. Greg told me that the story behind the name is that the road used to be so rough that you could take a load of potatoes down the road, and by the time you reached the end they would all be peeled. Be that as it may, I still find it odd to see "Tater Peeler" spelled out on a street sign.

Makes me wonder if there's a sign that says "Pothole Alley" in town somewhere.

Permalink mom

Aaaaahhhhhhhh-chooooooooo

08.30.2004

I hate summer colds.

Permalink

Electricity Used To Be A Friend Of Mine

08.27.2004

Yesterday as I arrived home, I pressed the remote garage door opener like I always do. Unlike most times, the garage door did not open. As I got closer and closer, I tried repeatedly to open the door. I parked in the driveway, got out with the remote, walked up to the garage door and tried again. Nothing.

A storm had come through earlier, maybe the power was out? I peeked through the front door and saw the living room ceiling fan whirring about. Well, there was power. I checked the remote and tried again. The green light was coming on when I pressed the button, so the batteries were good - after all I had just replaced them last month.

At this point I dug out my seldom used front door key. It unlocked the doorknob just fine, but the key didn't slide into the deadbolt lock with ease. After a couple minutes of coaxing, it finally slid in to where I could unlock the door and get in the house. I then went to check the garage, with my remote still in hand. I looked up to the motor mounted to the ceiling and noticed the little green power light was not on. The switch wired to open the door didn't seem to work either.

It finally hit me that it was also too quiet. The fan that I leave on to circulate the air in the garage wasn't circulating. Thinking it was a breaker, I went to the breaker box and flipped everything off and then back on. Still nothing. Remembering the ground fault outlet in the garage, I looked closer and noticed it was tripped. I tried to reset it, but it would automatically trip each time. I unplugged things, reset breakers again, everything I could think of, but I could not get the outlet to reset.

The only other thing connected to the circuit is the recently (March) installed bathroom light, which also doesn't work. The circuit went bad when I plugged in the power washer and something went kaput. I called in the electrician that installed the light and he managed to fix everything in about 10 minutes. It looks like I'm going to have to give him another call, even though I don't remember using the power washer this time.

The house is quickly becoming my never ending project.

Permalink renovation/remodelling

Cars

08.25.2004

My goal is to buy myself a car for my birthday. I've been pining for a convertible, and through sheer randomness I decided that my birthday (a good 6 months off) is a good time to follow through. I have no idea what kind of car I want, just that it's a convertible, and I have to fit in it.

A couple of weeks ago I made my way to Sunvertibles in Nashville and "tried on" a couple of cars to see if they fit. Promptly excluded from my list:

• BMW Z-3: Although I could actually fit in it, my entire left side and top of my head were in contact with the car at all times.
• Honda S-2000: I've never seen a bucket seat with so much bucketness.
• Mercedes-Benz SLK230: The top of the windshield hits me perfectly at eye level, and I could steer with my massive, manly thighs.

On my list, but probably needing to be taken off:

• Porsche Boxster: I fit in it, but like the SLK the top of the windshield was about at eye level. When I put down the visor, I couldn't see anything in front of the car.
• Saab 900 SE Turbo: Although I fit ok, I didn't like the way it felt.

And making the list for what I fit in just fine:

• Chrysler Sebring JXi

There's still a few more cars I want to try, but I'm not in any hurry - I've got 6 months, after all.

While looking at all these cars, it hit me that one of the hidden costs I needed to look at was to try and see what maintenance costs would be. After all, upkeep on a Porsche is probably more than a Mustang (I know, Mustangs weren't on my list, but after having 2 I think it's time to move on). Talking to my friend the internet, I was lead to the Edmunds Car Maintenance Calculator. This is a cool little tool because it not only shows the car care costs, but also any recalls or other bad news about the car. I found out there was a recall on my truck for the gas tank cap I never heard about. When looking at maintenance, it breaks things up pretty well (parts and their prices, individual labor broken up), so I think it gives a good idea of what the car care can cost.

Well, assuming you actually take care of the car.

Permalink conveyances