This evening the kids spent the night with my mother and Ginger is working. Sounds like a good time to go for a ride in the Miata.

At approximately 8:00 pm as the sun was dropping I hoped in the car and header towards the TN state line. Forty-five minutes later I was back home. It was very nice out. The trip should really only take 30 minutes but it was a joy ride so I took a few detours. I had to turn on the headlights on the way back. I suspect I have a few bug smears now.

The Longest Joke Setup
To I had lunch with the normal lunch crew (DM, TW). As I was pulling out of the parking lot I turned on the CD player and said "Have you heard the new U2 CD?" If you had been there you would have laughed too. As you may recall I purchased that CD back in November and it has been in the CD player since. Yep.

This afternoon I went out for a short ride in the Miata. That is the short version of the story.

The long version would include details about stopping to talk with Mr. Melberg about his truck restoration efforts. He had a very impressive shop. It was the kind of shop that makes you want to go home and sweep the floor. With lots of time and effort my garage could be that clean and organized.

After I returned home I decided to crank up the old truck again. It hit on the first try. I cruised up and down the driveway a couple of times. I had already decided this would be its final voyage in its current condition.

It is now time to strip the truck down to the frame. The tear down should go rather quickly. I expect it will be a long time before it gets put all back together again.

Mr. Melberg showed me a few products he uses that I need to remember so I thought I would make a note of them here.

First is Roloc. These are abrasive pads that go on a 90 degree die grinder or speed sander. They make a quick job of removing paint and leave the metal very smooth. It is also faster than 40 grit paper on a DA.

Second was SAIT abrasive wheels for the 4" grinder. He said they cost a little bit more but last longer and remove material faster. Material in this case being metal.

Third is POR-15. He used this stuff to paint his frame. It looked great.

The mechanical fuel pump in the '72 got replaced today.

Before heading to the parts store I checked the pricing online. Two available. The first was $19.99. The second was $13.99.

The guy in the store tried to sell me the twenty dollar one. I asked for the thirteen dollar one. He seemed surprised that I might know that it existed. He couldn't find it but he did find one for $11.99. That is the one I bought and installed. Everything is fine now.

I bet your wondering how one determines when a fuel pump needs to be replaced. The answer is you guess. Today I made a lucky guess. I knew I should have replaced it when I was rebuilding the engine lst winter but the cheap-skate in me talked me out of it.

I think I have figured out where my lack of patience comes from.

My father has been talking about getting a new car. His plan was hold out a few more months and then bring it home. He has actually be talking about this for over a year I think.

Today he bought one. I haven't heard the story yet but I suspect it has something to do with those employee price discounts GM has been offering. Or maybe it was just a lack of patience.

The answer is a Buick LaCrosse. I was hoping for the Acura.

The web was down again. Did I mention that it seems like I spend more time working on computers than using computers.

My wife is embarrassed to admit how many computers we have in the house. Don't tell her I told you so. I am a computer engineer though so I think it is simply genetic. It is not that I refuse to throw a computer away when it is no longer useful, I just usually manage to find another home for it before then. You may recall I gave one to my sister just a few short months ago. It was a screaming 300 Mhz job.

For the record, my oldest computer is a 533 Mhz Dell. It is currently my web server. Please don't hit refresh on the browser to fast, you'll take it down. Also for the record, I surveyed four of my friends last year, and two of them had more computers then me. What a bunch of geeks.

The box showed up today. All those who took the bet, need to send in the dollar your owe me.

So this evening I repaired the broken computer. New 400 watt power supply and processor fan, etc. Everything is now fine.

Last night I played the "Why doesn't file sharing on the network work?" game. I lost.

So it seems to me that I spend more time working on computers than actually using them.

1-0-0-1-0-0-1 SOS
1-0-0-1-0-0-1 In Distress.

Package Tracking
Ain't that new fangled internet stuff just awesome? Like for instance package tracking.

I was expecting a box from FedEx yesterday. When I got home it wasn't here so I checked the tracking number. Then I said to myself, "Self, that's odd." I sometimes talk to myself when I know people are listening. The tracking history showed the package was already delivered, not yesterday, but 3 days earlier on Friday.

So I thought to myself, "Good, no more waiting". Most people can't hear me think, though I suspect that there is at least one person that can. No box in the house, no box in the garage, no box on the front or the back porch. No box mistakenly delivered to the neighbors.

Next idea. Call customer support where I placed my order. They are going to put a trace on it. It was about this point that I noticed the alleged delivery time was 10:10 PM. I thought that was odd. So did the customer service girl.

Her thought was the driver probably didn't deliver it but marked it that way to get it out of the computer. She went ahead and put a trace on it but told me if it shows up on Tuesday to give her a call back. I got a dollar says it will arrive today.

What good is package tracking if it LIES?

DNF
Or rather, Did Not Start. Only six cars ran in the American Gran Prix today. It was a bit disappointing.

Results: Ferrari(ms), Ferrari(rb), Jordan(tm).

I made a few predictions before the race. In a strange way most of them came true.

1. Sato (BAR-Honda) would not finish. I expected him to blow an engine or something similar.
2. Juan Pablo Montoya would not finish.
3. Michael and Rubens (Both Ferraris) would only end up on the podem if a handful of front runners fell out of the race. This of course has happened in the last couple of races, for example last week Juan got black flagged and the race before that his front suspension shattered.

The race was weird. Lots of cheering for Ferrari, Jordan, and Minardi. Lots of boo'ing over the boycott. I don't think anyone really understood what was happening.

I Tivo'ed the race so later this week I will get another perspective on what happened. The article I read this evening on CNN made it sound like Schumacher got boo'ed when he won. That was not at all what happened.

Did I mention I bought a nice red Ferrari hat. It will go nicely with my little red Ferrari, er, Miata.

Maybe tomorrow I will tell you about getting a fire truck rolling this morning.

I am here. Here I am.

We (David M. and Troy W.) are at Indy for the Formula One American Grand Prix. Today was practice and qualifying. We had perfect weather. I managed to get a few dozen photos of cars. As usual, random pictures to follow.

Tomorrow is the actual race. I am ready!

The hotel we are staying at does not have internet access. Apparrently another nearby hotel has free wireless internet though because here I am.

Now for the useful details you have come to love and expect. Last night dinner was at Uno's. This was pretty good pizza. (I think I ate at an Uno's in Orlando last year.)

The current question is whether to provide a donation to the PowerBall lottery.

Something must be wrong with these Mopar's. The trunk and hood always seems to be stuck open. Must have been a design flaw.

There just happens to be a Mopar show at the Huntsville Drag strip this weekend. The strip is just a couple of miles from the house.
I will be more than just a few miles from the house though so I will miss it. I will get to see some shiney red Ferraris though.

In a couple of hours I will be off to the races.

Jordan was interrogating me this morning about the schedule for the weekend. I told him he could go with me when he got a little older. He replyed, that he didn't want to go.

The kids sure get up early when they don't have to go to school. They have both been up at least an hour. If they were going to school today, they would have slept to 7:00.

This weekend is the F1 American Grand Prix in Indianapolis. I will be there. Don't look for me sitting at pole position though. I don't have a Formula One car and at approximately $14 million I am not likely to get one.

The Canadian race last weekend ended nicely. Red cars in positions two and three. Kimi got the top spot. Maybe we will see a Ferrari finish this next race first. Or alternatively we could see a Finnish finish the race first just like last week.

I am ready for summer break.

After work today I strolled out to the parking deck to locate my Miata. A few spots over I saw an old friend sitting in his car waiting for it to warm up.

I told him he needed to put his top down. Bruce agreed and proceeded to put the top down. His car is a golden '72 Corvette. We talked a few minute before he ask me if I wanted to go for a ride. I hestitated because I was ready to go home and then said "yes".

He drove a mile or two before asking "Want to drive it". Again I hesitated before saying yes. I drove it back to the parking deck. When we pulled up next to my car, he started to get out and I said "See you later". Ha! His other car is a late sixties Mustang.

About that time another guy rolls up in his '94 Corvette Grand Sport. Another sweet car.

The Corvette was a fun drive, especially because it was a convertible. The Miata is a lot of fun also. It is amazing how much fun both cars are and how they handle so differently.

I think perhaps I will try to convince my Father his next car should be a Corvette. Think of it as transportation which appreciates in value. That might just be a good investment.

This weekend is the American Grand Prix. 18,000 RPMs.

Technically I now have approximately 2.5 trucks. My garage can really only hold two. What to do? It is time to start stacking them. Tomorrow evening I will attempt to put the front of the '68 into the back of the '72.

Pickup Line
Last week I got to drive the Miata Monday thru Friday. It rained over the weekend and G' was at work so it stayed in the garage Saturday and Sunday. Monday was a kid pickup day, so ergo I was in the pickup. Tomorrow is not a pickup day and it appears the weather is planning to cooperate.

Have I mentioned the convertible Datsun 1100 I saw last week? Do you have any idea what that looked like? I saw one at the salvage yard. It was apparently from the early '70s and way ahead of it's time. I Googled for an image to no avail.

My friend Creg is storing the hood for his '53 Ford pickup in my shop {upstairs}. The contract says I keep it if it stays for 10 years. He will be back for it though. I offered to store it because his garage was full and he needed a nice dry place to keep it.

Saturday I helped him detach the rear axel and suspension from his frame. After that we literally pulled the frame out from under the cab on a dolly. His next step is probably sand blasting the frame. Estimate for DIY: 3 long days. Professional Job: $100. We will soon know which resource is more scarce for him - time or money. He is like me in that he will need to think/talk about it for a couple of week before any action occurs.

What is a word that means the opposite of impulsive?

Ah, yes. The dreaded Monday morning. I woke up a little earlier than normal so I went ahead and got up. Now everyone is up about 45 minutes ahead of schedule. I will surely pay for this. I was trying to be quiet but the kids don't understand the words "Shhh, quiet, Momma is still asleep."

Big news for this morning. The trash can is already out by the street. No worries about forgetting it this morning.

I believe this one is a '48 as well. :)

The red one is a '48. I don't recall the year of the yellow one but it is roughly the same. These were taken at the car show in Decatur a few weeks ago.

My new-old rusty sheet metal is now safely in the garage. Along with a couple of coil springs and a pair of heavy duty leaf springs.

And I also managed to get the usual 5 loads of laundry done that each Saturday requires. We definitely need more wire hangers. And a '05 yellow Corvette convertible.

I got to see Star Wars - The Sith Movie this afternoon. I enjoyed it very much. They did a good job of tying the first two to the older three. Plenty of action. Many questions answered.

If you were looking to be critical of the movie, it wouldn't be difficult to find a few rocks to throw but I will leave that to someone else.

Yoda rocked again and the special effects were incredible.

Now I need to see IV, V, and VI again but I don't have those yet. Perhaps soon.

More Sheet Metal
At lunch today I made a quick trip out to a salvage yard to purchase a few 'new-to-me' parts for the GMC. I felt like I got a really good deal. I will be making a return trip on Saturday with the help of my friend Creg to fetch the parts and bring them hither. I will enumerate my list of goodies after the retrieval is complete. Perhaps even a few photos.

Eighteen Going on Twenty
Today, out of the blue from South Carolina, I received an email from DeAnna. We went to high school together. We even went on a date once if bowling counts as a date. I wonder whatever happened to my bowling shoes. I don't think I have seen them since Auburn, but I digress. I saw 'Mr. Mom' for the first time at her house. That movie has one of my favorite lines of all time: "Two-twenty, two-forty, whatever it takes." Now that my friend is some advice you can live by.

She was checking in to see if anyone had started planning the 20 year HS reunion. I helped plan my 10 year reunion and I didn't get started til a couple of months prior. I am looking forward to seeing those folks again, but it is still a few years away. Maybe I will grow up by then.

And for the record, Imaginery Mike was mentioned in conversation at the ten year festivities.

I also received (I before E except after C) another email today from someone looking over the Miata install page I created. I am amazed at the number of emails that thing has generated. Not nearly as many as referring to an l6278 has created though. Thinking about it now I must have been crazy to take that hard drive apart. C'est la vie.

That part number is continually the number one search term on my blog. This month we had another interesting one: "pretty rick grind with me". I don't even want to know what that one was about. Norm even made a showing.

For the record, I am currently up to no good. Stay tuned for more on that.

I have taken tomorrow off! Jeehaw! (I believe that was the Finnish spelling.) I have a few errands to run in the AM and then hopefully we will be seeing that Sith movie in the afternoon. I read the abridged script (Thank you Mr. Red). I don't think it spoiled it for me. Go check it out at your own risk.

The little people are partying with Grandma tomorrow night so our plan is dinner and a movie.

These same little people were in the neighbors pool when I got home. I joined them for a while. The water was too cool.

Ginger apparrently mentioned her computer had quit last week. I apparrently didn't actually hear her til yesterday. I spent a half hour trouble shooting it this evening and guess what? It looks like another motherboard has given up the magic smoke. That is odd! Two in a month. We have had a few T-storms lately, but those things are on UPS and and and.

And speaking of Mr. Mom, not to be confused with AtHomeDaddy, have you noticed there is a new Batman movie. Hope I didn't lose you there.

And finally I will leave you with these three words: Margarita Bucket.

I am Rick Martindale and I am proud to announce that I did not proof read nor spell check this blog entry. And I am sure it shows.

Hey, who slurred my speech?

For The Record
Scandalous lies are being spread.

Previous posts clearly state that Brianna's Cherry Bed was completed last August. While there is photographic evidence the bed was still in the garage on November 1, 2004, it was officially moved into her room on Saturday January 22, 2005. The sweet little girl has been sleeping in her big bed every night since then.

GMC
I have been give official approval to acquire the GMC front end I have had my eye on for a while. Assuming it is still there, I will go pick it up at the salvage yard on Saturday. I have already arranged to borrow a trailer to bring it home. For the record, the front end is off a '68 and it is complete with all the letters, badges, and grill.

No, it doesn't have anything to do with the 'rita bucket.

The wax job is still looking pretty good on the Miata. Had a chance to see a little beading action this evening. With the top down. Gurgle gurgle.

No report back from Dr. Cardio yet.

My internet connection went down for a few hours today. My ISP disavows all knowledge. Yeah right!

I have been completely unmotivated lately. Yes, completely.

Friday's trip to the doctor turned up nothing so far. I did hard time on the tread mill and was rewarded with orange juice. They said they would call with the results next week. Ho hum.

My sister spent the night with us last night. The kids enjoyed seeing her.

My father came by today for a few hours. The kids enjoyed seeing him as well. We all watched Star Wars - The Phantom Menace this morning. I noticed several things about the story line that I had previously overlooked. We still haven't been to the #3.

Jordan got some plastic golf clubs from Terry for his birthday. Last weekend we played mini-golf. Today we pretended we were playing mini-golf in the house. Everyone was a good sport and we played nine holes. My favorite was when we tee'ed off upstairs and the hole was in Bri's bed room. The score was very close but in the end I didn't win. It seemed like the afternoon might be a little more peaceful that way.

As you may or may not have noticed, my web server has been down. Actually it wasn't down so much as it just wasn't communicating with the rest of the network.

What happened? I am not really sure but it had something to do with my father-in-law plugging his laptop into the network on Sunday. For some reason, his computer ended up with the same IP address the server had. Things haven't been the same since then.

The Week In Review
Friday was Jordan's 7th Birthday.

Saturday morning I got a hair cut and drove over to Decatur for the car show.

Saturday afternoon the in-laws arrived to spend the weekend with us.

Saturday evening we all drove back to Decatur to see the Hot Air balloons. Also took a look at the old tractors on display

Sunday we went to O'Charley's for Lunch. Jordan's pick. They sang happy birthday to him. It was also my Mother's Birthday.

Sunday afternoon I put a 1.5 gallons of gas in the truck and cranked it up. Yep, it was out of gas.

Monday we played 18 holes of mini-golf. I also made a drawer front for my sister Terry. I spent a lot of time getting the stain to not match. It didn't match before I got started either.

Tuesday I called Ginger from work and told her if she would make the appointment, I would go see the doctor. I have been having chest pains for a few days. Some pain in the left arm also.

Today I went to the doctor. If you walk in the front door and say "I am having chest pain" they will have you laying flat on a table so fast it will make your head spin. They did an EKG and said everything looked ok. Lots of other tests also including chest x-rays and tapping the veins. Did I really need to know my cholesterol level was high? Friday I get to go see a cardiologist and have a stress test. Funny they call it a stress test. Well not really. The doctor said my problem was probably just stress. He is probably right, but that doesn't mean I am not in a little bit of pain right now.

As I was sitting, waiting for the test results it occurred to me that 1) I rarely get a cold or the flu, 2) all my real health problems over the last few years have either been weight or stress related. Follow me out on this limb while I claim that weight problems are probably the result of stress. They don't call them comfort foods for nothing.

Today a friend told me that getting old sucks. I told him I was glad I wasn't old like him. Or you.

The power went out this morning from 6:45 til 7:30 am. The computer needed a good reboot anyway. Fascinating. No, not so much.