Monthly Archives: May 2008

The New ’08, in for the Old ’98

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This looks like the likely replacement for the old ’98; an ’08 Saturn Astra. We just got back from a test drive, and we both liked the car. It’s quiet, economical, and sporty enough for two grandparents. We left a list of specifications on one we’d like with the dealer. My little bride’s back requires seats with decent lumbar support; the one we drove didn’t have that option, but we’re sufficiently OK with it that we soldier on. The color of ours might not be the same as the picture; our choices, in descending order were blue, white, black, silver. Color isn’t as important as the lumber support, so we may go with our last color choice, sandstone. Whatever the dealer can troll up.

A totally strange thing about this car; its final assembly point is Antwerp, Belgium; the engine is from Japan, and the transmission was made in Hungary. They are building them there, while Saturn’s Spring Hill TN plant retools to build them here.

Nothing like that international flair, eh?

-k-
[stags]Life,cars,Saturn[/stags]

The Wreck of the Old ’98

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My little bride’s ’98 Saturn SL2, after 106,000 miles of acceptably reliable service, was in an accident last Thursday. MLB was turning left, and got clipped in the right rear by a Nissan who was barrelling down the right turn only lane. Technically, it was MLB’s fault for turning into oncoming traffic. There’s little doubt the Nissan was speeding, but in the absence of any radar guns, it’s our word against theirs. In the Nissan’s defense, its driver made a valiant attempt to stop, but came up just short. MLB is a good and careful driver, as her 30 year accident-free streak attests. She said she never saw the Nissan. That’s why incidents such as this are called accidents.

No one was hurt, save for jangled nerves. The old ’98 was not so fortunate. The impact was just at the rear of the right rear door, which is a shattered mess of Forest Green Saturn plastic. The right rear wheel is at an angle that no right wheel should be; it rendered the car undrivable. I’m no body man, but there’s doubtless countless other suspension-related parts and supporting doo-dads needing replacement. And being 10 years old, with 106K miles, there’s little doubt in by mind that the car is totalled.

So, not by choice, we’re in the car market. We’d hoped to go another year or two, more if everything was still reliable. But that was not our choice to make. We went on a test drive today, liked the car. We’re waiting on State Farm to pronounce the old ’98 dead; after that, we’ll have a new rig gracing our parking spot.

That old ’98 has a sweet spot in our hearts; it had the best engine of all our Saturns, MLB thought the seats were comfortable, and we found our current cat sleeping under it 8 years ago.

The real tragedy is that when being so suddenly and irrevocably dispatched into salvage-yard heaven, it had a full tank of gas.

-k-
[stags]Life[/stags]

And the Badge is Updated

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The Fedora 9 Sulfur badge in the right sidebar has lost its “days until” verbiage, meaning that it’s released. I found a decently fast mirror, and am downloading the install DVD iso as I type this.

I also made another decision; some way, somehow, I want to be involved with the Fedora Project. I don’t know what form my involvement may take, I just know that I want to play, too.

-k-
[stags]fedora,geek[/stags]
[tags]fedora,fedora9[/tags]

The No-Fly Streak is About Over

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I’m proud that, for 3 years or more, I’ve been able to avoid the cluster-eff that air travel in America has become. I don’t fear crashing planes, terrorists on planes, or anything remotely similar. I don’t fear, but resent with every fiber in my body, the feeble ministrations of the TSA and the entire Department of Homeland Security, in their “mission” to Keep us Safe.

I shake my head in bafflement at people who put up with the TSA idiocy, and then shed their shoes, belts, and all but disrobe to get on an overcrowded plane staffed by surly airline personnel, and then say “It’s inconvenient, but if it makes it safer, it’s worth it.” Right on the inconvenience, wrong on the making us safer part. The TSA screening points are staffed in the main by poorly managed, ill-trained people who are on the government teat, and serve only to provide some uniform-clad illusion of safety.

The DHS in general has turned into nothing less than yet another domestic spy agency, gathering, mining, and storing data on innocent American citizens, all in the name of “security”.

Guess what, you nitwits? I’m not afraid; I was not afraid on 9/11, I’m not afraid now, and all your meaningless color-coded horseshit advisories are just that: futile gestures by an inept bureaucracy struggling to justify its existence. You serve only to instill and reinforce fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the populace, egged on by cowardly legislators and the nationwide network of the lapdog press. In so doing, you are pissing away untold tax dollars for zero returns. You care not about anything, save next year’s appropriation, which do-nothing legislators are all too willing, due to their cowardice and sound-bite cravings, to provide. Appropriate, rinse, repeat. That’s the drill. And Beltway Bandit contractors gather greedily around the trough, all too willing to buy, sell and trade whatever ineffable swill is in vogue on any given day.

In spite of that, we want to see our grandchildren. So, in 10 days or so, we fly. Not willingly, but we fly. The drive is just too long for the time we have for this trip.

It would be much better, if we lived closer. We’d drive then. We’re working on it.

-k-
[stags]Politics,Life,DHS[/stags]
[tags]DHS,TSA,Security[/tags]

Earthquake!

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1.8 magnitude earthquake rattles D.C. area

I was in my shabby cubicle when it happened; I thought it was a sonic boom. According to the article:

Earthquakes with a magnitude of about 2.0 or less are usually called microearthquakes, and about 1,000 occur around the world each day, says Bruce Presgrave, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.

1000? That’s a lot. It’s also small potatoes compared to the unfolding human tragedy in Myanmar. I think it’s time to throw a few bucks to the charity of your choice, and try to get these folks some help. We plan to do just that, this weekend.

-k-
[stags]Life, charity[/stags]

Hillary, Go Home

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Apparently Hillary Clinton is mathematically challenged, and stubbornly refuses to admit that she’s lost the Democratic nomination. There is simply no way that even given 100% of the remaining delegates, she could pull out the victory.

That’s assuming one plays by the rules. But this is the self-aggrandizing junior senator from New York, whose ego knows no bounds. I’m expecting the dirty tricks to escalate, for there to be Clintonisms about the definition of majority and pleas for the bending of the rules like we’ve never seen.

The Democrats, the self-proclaimed party of the downtrodden, where every vote counts, and the majority rules, are denying their own party members the same things they promise to the nation at large. All of which making it more and more likely that in January 2009, we’ll be hearing the words

I, John Sidney McCain, do solemnly swear …

So, Hillary, just get out. I think the transportation pictured at the right should carry you where you need to go.

-k-
[stags]Politics[/stags]
[tags]hillaryclinton[/tags]

Happy Birthday, Sweet 16

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Our oldest granddaughter, Ericka, turned 16 last February 29. The big celebration was held mid last-month, with a paintball party. Her mother has shown some new media savvy by posting an iMovie of the event on YouTube. For your viewing pleasure, here it is:

I must admit to being generationally challenged by the event and the background music in the video. But this is no time for me to write anything containing the phrase back in my day.

My only regret about the video is it doesn’t show what a pretty young lady Ericka is. She’s the one in white, with long hair that just couldn’t be confined under the helmet.

-k-
[stags]Life, Family[/stags]

Derby Day

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As we prepare for this year’s Run for the Roses, my little bride and I are getting together the fixin’s for an appropriate beverage. That would be a mint julep. When I was in college, my roommate always said we should have juleps on Derby Day; we never got around to that.

I’ve told my wife on every Derby Day since that “Next year, we’ll make us some mint juleps.” And this is the year to do it. I stopped at the Harris Teeter last night and bought some fresh mint leaves1. We have the sugar and bourbon, and we managed to scrounge up some small silver cups that we’d had forever2.

There is no shortage of julep recipes available on the internet. The traditional one just calls for muddling the mint leaves and a little sugar in the bottom of your cup, then adding crushed ice and bourbon. Others recommend making a simple syrup, which gets added to the glass, along with the rest of the ingredients. I’m a traditionalist, so I recommended method one. My little bride said she’d get together a little syrup, so we could try both variations. She then followed that offer with the comment “I don’t want to get shit faced before supper.” Nor do I. It’s pork chop night.

-k-
[stags]eats,kentucky derby[/stags]

1 I also brought home a supply of Shiners, which is an appropriate beverage in any venue.

2 Thereby saving $200 per cup on the purchase of silver julep cups, which we wouldn’t have done anyhow. Old fashioned glasses would have had to do.