Russellmania.com

No More Flats II

11.03.2009

59 months ago I replaced my Nissan pickup with a Ford Explorer. I hated that pickup. I found I liked the feel of the Explorer after renting one on a trip to Florida, and when it came time to replace the pickup the Explorer was the route to go.

Over the past 5 years I haven't really had any trouble out of the Explorer. Regular oil changes and tire rotations, 1 tune-up, 1 new set of tires. Not bad for 5 years, since it's the mechanical problems that make me want to trade cars in. Over the past few months, as I've been nearing the 100K mile point, I've remarked at how little trouble I've had and how I still like my Explorer. 2 months ago I noticed that it felt like the transmission was slipping a little (jerking between high and low gears sometimes) and that I needed to get it looked at.

Last week I looked at my payoff on the Explorer and say that I actually had some equity built up (a first!) now that I have a year of payments left. The next thought was how if I really did have transmission problems, it would cost a pretty penny, piss me off, then make me trade it in, thus losing money on fixing it. So I did what anybody would expect of me.

I traded the 2005 Explorer in on a 2010 Explorer. The new one is the same as the old one, except it's red, has a 2nd row DVD player (just what every single guy needs), and has 2 miles on the odometer instead of 95,000. There are cosmetic differences between the two that I'm getting used to, but I'm holding off labeling the pros and cons until I've driven around for a week or two.

Permalink conveyances

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike

10.27.2009

After talking about it with Gina and deciding to follow through, I finally have a bicycle.

For most people, a bicycle wouldn't be that big of a deal as far as purchasing. Pick a price point, go find one, begin riding. For me, due to my metric tonnage, I had to have a special bike. Bikes don't have weight limits, it all comes down to the parts, most importantly the wheels. The wheels bear the weight, so that's where you have to start. Ever scouring the interweb I found a good forum that has a big & tall section that got me started on what to ask and how to ask. I eventually went to my local bike shop in Madison and put them to work customizing a bike that would hold me. Here's a quick summary of what I had done:

The pedals and rotor (or whatever the big thing the pedals are connected to) all got upgraded to metal parts.
Custom made 40-spoke wheel - I had asked about wheels for tandem bikes since they're supposed to hold upwards of 400 lbs, but these wheels would cost about he same and be stronger.
Thorn resistant/thicker inner tube.

After I picked the bike up and rode around Gina's block a couple of times, I needed my own nerdy upgrades!

Bag to go under the seat to hold keys and whatnot.
Seat that doesn't poke me in the testiculars.
GPS because it's a speedometer I can plug into the computer.
Headlight because it's about to get dark just as I'm getting off work.

I've also got gloves with gel in the palms and a helmet that fits my huge melon, so I'm being safe! Once I figured out how the GPS works, I found I like keeping up with my trips:

10 miles in 2 trips! And I didn't die going up a big friggin' hill on the way to the cemetery. I know, irony. Gina had a flat coming back from that one, though.

More updates as I progress!

Permalink conveyances

Screenshots for Jer

10.14.2009

Jerry gets a kick out of my mail Warcraft guy running around kicking butt of the lower level NPCs. I admit, I do enjoy it. Nothing makes me feel better after a rough day than just being a bully and kicking the snot out of some computer AI. I've taken Jer through Stockades a couple of times as I'm about 40 levels above the mobs in the instance and can solo it fairly well. The last trip through I tried pulling a couple of rooms into the hallway for the killing feast to allow Jer to meet a pile of sparkly corpses to loot. I started to wonder if i could pull a hallway, or even the entire dungeon.

After a trip to the auction house to upgrade some armor (now over 11000 Jer!), I decided to run to Stocks and give pulling a hallway a try.

By the time the bodies from 1 hallway, 4 adjoining rooms, and some of the rooms at the end of the hall had all hit the floor, I had about 25% of my health remaining and wound up looting 37 bodies.

I didn't get a lick of experience, and the loot will likely not pay for much more than my armor repairs, but it sure was fun.

Permalink video games

How much is a stamp?

10.13.2009

I mail off bill payments about twice per month. I don't know why, but I can never remember off the top of my head how much postage to put on the envelope.

I know, I should be all high tech and modern and pay my bills online, but there's something I just prefer about writing out a check and mailing the little bastards off. I think it's one of those things that makes me feel like I'm paying bills. Buying things online is fun! Point, click, done. No more thinking about it. Writing out that check is my way of saying "this isn't a fun thing I'm buying, so don't get carried away."

Over the past few years when it came time to buy stamps, I would get a roll of 100 first-class stamps. Soon after I started doing this the postal service decided to change the price of first class stamps every third Tuesday. As such, I still have around 3 variations of first-class stamps. Instead of saving them up, I purchased a variety of 1¢ & 2¢ stamps so that I could use those historical stamps.

Here are my steps to bill paying:

Open bills
Write check
Stuff check and receipt in envelope
Close envelope
Apply custom printed return address sticker featuring me in a wrestling mask
Google price of first class postage
Apply postage
Drop off bills at post office since mailing them from home didn't get there twice, stupid boonies mail people.

I can usually find the first class postage price on the first page of the Google results, and I always say "Oh yeah, I knew it was 44¢.", but I check every time since I would feel stupid for being late paying a bill because I skimped on a penny. Today Google presented me with a shortcut for finding the price of that stamp: http://www.priceofastamp.com/.

The utter simplicity of it amazes me. I look forward to visiting the site two times each month.

Permalink rambling random

Me 'n' Fleh

10.01.2009

A few weeks back I twisted Jerry's arm and made him start to play World of the Warcraft. I believe he's enjoying it, as the subject is our main topic when avoiding work. I could go on and on about how it's more than a hack-n-slash game or a repetitive button-masher, but that's a post for another time. As it is, it's become something Jer and I enjoy that totally takes us away from whatever crap's going on during the day.

And for the record, Jer's the girly one on the left side of the picture.