Spotted another spiffy car leaving the neighborhood this morning. It was only a Porsche Boxster. A nice red one, and of course they are all convertibles. His top was up, mine was down. He was probably thinking, cool, this neighborhood has a Viper, a NSX, a Ferrari 308, a couple of Corvettes, and a shiny red Miata. I was thinking "Nice weather dude, put the top down."

Things have been really quiet around here for the last week. I have been pretty busy. Creating embedded intelligence.

The weather this past weekend promised that spring is quickly approaching. Oh joy. Hopefully I will finally get back to painting the truck frame soon.

Top down today. Oh yeah!

42

What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?

Back in junior high school, I read the book "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy". I read the remaining books in the series as time progressed and they were released. I even read Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently books. I would say I enjoyed all the books.

One might say I am pre-disposed to enjoying the work of Douglas Adams.

Now is a good time to insert a babel fish and put on your peril sensitive glasses. Vogon poetry follows:

Last night we watched "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy." The movie was horrible!

I suppose it is an SEP.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

We are back home again. It was nice to get away for the weekend.

Cloudmont

We stopped at Cloudmont on the way back home to do a little snow skiing. Yes, that is right, snow skiing in Alabama.

Brianna did very well for her first try. She had no fear at all and seemed to be truely enjoying it the few times she got a little slope action.

Jordan did very well also. He thinks he is no longer a beginner. I told him he should probably take at least one more lesson. He needs to learn how to turn.

Props to the ski instructors. They were very good with the kids. And the adults.

Ginger and I had a very limited amount of ski time due to helping the kids. We probably should have stayed longer, but Jordan and I were hungry (and I was tired).

Only one of the two slopes were open but it was more than sufficient for the number of people there.

The only real drawback to the place was the lift. The lift is simply a tow rope. Not too bad for the first 30 yards but as the slope gets steeper, the tow rope begins to lose its novelty.

The top of the slope is a little bit steeper than most beginners want to see, but then you don't have to go all the way to the top. While we were their today, most of the skiers were novices. Many of them were coming down the hill as fast as possible and then wiping out to stop. Crazy and dangerous.

Would I go back? Yes. If you go, get there early if you don't have your own equipement. They have a limited number of skis.

Thirty Seven
Yesterday was my birthday.

We did everything we planned and then sum. The additional adventure was a trip to the Chattanooga Model Rail Road museum. (Jordan is now correcting my spelling mistakes.) I would love to build another model railroad layout right now but I don't think I could handle another obsession at this point. Model railroading is a winter sport though.

Last night as we were walking back from dinner, Brianna said "Jordan, I have a question for you. What is a nooga?" That one just never gets old. We have been chatting about it all weekend.

Talking about Noogas

Today we spent quite a bit of time talking about Noogas.  What exactly is a Nooga?  We still don't know.

 

We got the heck out of Dodge for a long weekend.  We are currently in Chatanooga, TN. 

 

We have a lot planned for tomorrow.  The Tennessee Aquarium, the IMAX, and something else that I have forgotten.  Check back in twenty minutes, maybe I will have remembed by then.

 

Tonight we had dinner at a BBQ rib placed called Sticky Fingers.  It was pretty good for a chain.  The restaurant was just a couple of blocks from our hotel so we walked.

 

Twenty Minutes Is Up

 

And the answer is The Childrens Musuem. 

1 = 2

1 = 2

Assuming:

a = b

Then:

a * a = a * b

a^2 = ab

a^2 + a^2 = ab + a^2

2a^2 = ab + a^2

2a^2 - 2ab = ab + a^2 - 2ab

2a^2 - 2ab = a^2 - ab

2(a^2 - ab) = 1(a^2 - ab)

2 = 1

Fast and Furious

Tonight we watched the fast and the furious. I now understand now why there are so many hopped up rice burners driving around. I guess I need to get the Miata a turbo or a bottle of NOS, a big spoiler, and some thumpin' bass.

Or maybe I should just look into the local autocross scene.

This afternoon during the snow flurries I went for a little ride in the Miata. The snow was lite enough I didn't bother to put the top down. Maybe next time.

And tomorrow the brain synapses start firing again.

No work today

Nice! I managed to get absolutely nothing done. Nothing. Nada, Zip. Zero.

We have the Formula 1 slot cars out again. Zoooooom. The kids are even letting me play.

This week I Googled a friend from high school. I managed to find an email address for him (Tim H.). It is amazing what information is available via Google.

No Truck Progress Still

It has probably been about 5 weeks since I made any progress on the truck. The forecast for tomorrow is mid 30's, flurries in the afternoon. That does not sound condusive to sanding the frame in the driveway does it?

37

My birthday is next week. Last year was the big THREE-SIX. I realize that doesn't sound bad but you must realize two things: 1) 36 is within 10% of 40, and 2) as much life as transpired since graduating high school as before. The idea of 37 doesn't seem to be bringing any pain with it. We will see.

Yeah, Yeah! Here we go again. Check back in twenty minutes.


What is a Comm Requirement?

When unit A wants to talk to unit B.

April 15th came early again this year. Today was tax day. Glad that is over.

I tried one more attempt at recovering data from the hard drive. This time I sent it to OnTrack. They were also unsuccessful.

I got a little top down time in at lunch today. Oh the joy!

This last weekend I went to Express Oil for a quick oil and filter change. I only had 3k miles since the last change but the filter didn't get changed last time. I had to find a guy with a thin bone-y arm to take car of that.

This weekend I filled up the truck. Only 10.x MPG on the last tank. I suspect it was low due to moving David's stuff.

Today I filled up the Miata. Only about 26 MPG on this tank. Someone has had a lead foot lately. I must admit I have been driving it hard, but it has been fun. I put 12.7 gallons into the car with a 12 gallon tank. It must have been running on fumes. Zoom zoom zoom.

Who Can't Make Up Their Mind?
I sent the hard drive off to another data recovery center today. I decided to do this about 10 minutes after I washed my hands of the whole ordeal yesterday.

Stay Tuned.

We are now about 11 hours into the 30+ hours of the Barrett-Jackson auction I recorded on the Tivo. The auction is amazing and the cars are incredible.

Tonight I managed to remove a couple of minor bends from the frame of the '72 GMC. I did this by putting a vice on the bend and clamping down on it. Chad and Billy can now stop losing sleep over these bends.

After talking to another rep from another hard drive data recovery firm, I have officially given up on recovering the data again.

Today at 12:18 pm ewing.ods.org went offline. I unplugged the power cord. :)

The Ewings are now moved into their new home. We loaded up the last of the stuff a little after 3:00 pm today. They will probably be living out of card board boxes for a few days.

Every time I help someone move, it inspires me to want to go home and throw stuff away. This time was no different.

HD Report (Gillware Inc Review)

I sent Ginger's recently crashed harddrive to Gillware. They were unsuccessfull in recovering any data. On the positive side, they don't charge if they are unsuccessful.

Gilware have several levels of service. Same Day, Express, and Standard. For economical reasons I selected standard. The queue must have been short because they received it on Monday, diagnosed it on Monday, and announced defeat on Tuesday. They even volunteered to ship the drive back via UPS ground on their dime. I asked them to send it back 2nd day thinking I might try one more vender.

I was very pleased with their responsiveness and customer service. Too bad they couldn't recover the files.

In the meantine, I tried the freezer trick. The behavior remains the same. Oh well.

Moving Day

I helped David E. begin moving on Thursday evening. After we had loaded up the largest U-haul diesel, driven it across town, and unloaded it, I told David it was not too late to change his mind about moving. Moving all that stuff back would take less effort than continuing.

When I laid down in bed Thursday night I was sore. Whatever happened to the good old days when you didn't get sore til the day after.

I took yesterday afternoon off from work to provide some more moving assistance. You can't buy this kind of fun.

Last night when I went to bed I was tired, though not as sore as the night before. The tiredness was due to moving boxes, climbing stairs, moving boxes while climbing stairs and from only getting about 2 hours of sleep Thursday night. The sleep deprivation was much worse than the physical tiredness. At least until morning came.

This morning when I got out of bed not only was I sore, I was practically limping. Note to self: Either get more exercise or lose the friends.

David has professionals coming to move the large/breakable stuff this morning. This afternoon I will return to help finish it up. Hopefully. If we don't get it all today there is also tomorrow.

New Truck

No, not me, Chad. I have know Chad about 5 years. Chad has had 6 different trucks in that time.

I am suppose to help Chad install side steps on his new truck either this afternoon or tomorrow afternoon. I fear that once I get down on the ground I may never be able to get back up.

So there I was,
There I was, there I was,
Staring at an empty editor.

It seems I have been very busy lately and at the same time I don't have much to say.

Over the course of the next few days I will be helping a good friend move. I have helped him move a couple other times. He has helped me move a couple of times. We are both forever into each others debts. I sure hope the interest rates are low.

Today was Jay's last day at work. He is moving on to greener pastures. (Does that imply there is more fertilizer?)

Weekend before last I went to test drive the Corvette and the Triumph. Unfortunately they had both already been sold. Last weekend I went to test drive a Mini Cooper. I didn't get around to that one. Ginger wants to know why I want to drive all these cars. If you have to ask, you will never know.

{sigh}

Twenty minutes is up and nothing.