Monthly Archives: January 2009

Arkansaw

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We arrived safely at 3:30 PM local time yesterday. Still bitterly cold. Would have posted this yesterday, but brother-in-law’s beer was just way too handy.

Oh, and the car is a Cadillac DTS, not a CTS as previously documented. A sweet ride, whose lifetime fuel economy went up to 19.2 mpg on yesterday’s leg of the trip.

So, MLB and her sister will be entertaining their mother. Brother-in-law and I will be left to our own devices. We’ll probably wind up at this fine investment bank, and see what the $2 window can do to augment our retirement nest eggs.

-k-

Safely in Music City

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Leg one of the Search for America Tour, 2009 edition is in the books. This tour is powered by Cadillac; a burgandy red CTS to be precise. We covered 650+ miles today; 10 hours of driving time; 12 hours of time elapsed off the clock. That’s plenty. We’re now at a Hampton Inn just west of Nashville.

We had beautiful, though bone-chillingly cold weather all the way. The temperature struggled to crack 25o and had a side order of variable but steady wind. Took all the joy out of smoking at rest stops; I’ve been issued but two stindeens, and have no desire to lose them in pursuit of a habit I should quit anyhow.

On the mileage front, the average life-to-date mpg on our rental increased from 18.9 to 19.1. On this leg, we got around 22-23 mpg, which impressed me, given our 70-75 mph speed and the wind. And the CTS has a V-8; nice to mash the gas on something with some ponies under the hood.

We’re safe, but tired. Nice to be in Central Time again. Tomorrow, 6 more hours of the same, across half of Tennessee, over the mighty MIssissip’, and on to Hot Springs, where I’ll help my brother-in-law control his beer inventory.

-k-

RIP, Patrick McGoohan

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Patrick McGoohan, of Secret Agent and The Prisoner fame, has passed away at age 80.

I was a Secret Agent fan back in my long, long ago youthful years. I’ve never watched The Prisoner, however. Coincidentally, I read some chatter about The Prisoner in my FriendFeed channel earlier in the month. This series is 17 episodes in all; the people chatting about it loved the show.

I think I owe myself a trip to Amazon to acquire the DVD set.

-k-

RIP, Ricardo Montalban

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Ricardo Montalban, silver screen and teevee actor, has passed away at age 88. Frankly, the Fantasy Island fanfare didn’t impress me overly in its heyday. To me, the phrase Fine Corinthian Leather, from the car ads, endeared him forever.

I always have trouble writing these RIP posts; I remember a man with a life, love, and an entertainment career that started 60+ years ago by a single phrase that has stuck with me. In reading the stories about his passing, I read this little snippet, about his thoughts on Fantasy Island:

“What is appealing is the idea of attaining the unattainable and learning from it. Once you obtain a fantasy, it becomes a reality, and that reality is not as exciting as your fantasy. Through the fantasies you learn to appreciate your own realities.”

Lotta’ meaning there.

RIP, Señor Montalban.

-k-

Movin’ Slow

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As predicted, it was a short but intense work week. MLB has my duds and skivvies all packed, the electronics are rounded up, and I’ll continue to battle the cold bug that’s trying to beset me. The faithful cat’s supplies have been left with our good neighbor a couple of doors down1.

A bite to eat, then, and a decent night’s rest, and Westward Ho! tomorrow, after a trip to IAD to pick up the rental car. I asked for a Cadillac; we’ll see what we get.

-k-

1 The Faithful Cat has more supplies than a human infant; blankets, pillows, food, dishes. Man, cats have it made. To the degree that I wish reincarnation had some merit. If it did, I know my next-life species.

Approaching an 0-fer

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Let’s recap: four NFL playoff games this weekend; 3 played.

Number of my teams of choice that have won: 0.

NCAA Basketball:
The Kansas Jayhawks lost1.

Last NFL Game: San Diego vs Pittsburgh. My heart’s choice: San Diego2. Probable winner: Pittsburgh. Nonetheless, hope springs eternal, and I’ll be rooting for the winner of this one to claim all the NFL marbles.

-k-

1 A young team, though. They never gave up. They just lost. This too shall pass.

2 It’s that AFC West thing, and San Diego ain’t Denver.

Every Tour Starts with Electronics

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As we prepare for the first Search for America Tour of 2009, I’m rounding up the electronic devices necessary, or perceived to be necessary, to make this effort a success. This includes:

  1. Updating our TomTom GPS to the latest software.
  2. Rounding up batteries, SD cards, etc, for our camera.
  3. Gathering phone chargers. Including the one for the Jitterbug.
  4. Making sure the Sprint Wireless access card is handy.

All the above will be lovingly and meticulously packed into the gypsy’s Tom Binh backpack later on today.

Then we’re down to the grossest of the gross travel necessities; skivvies, toiletries, duds, and the like. This trip, I’m taking advantage of MLB’s semi-retired status to handle the packing of these.

So, three short but intense workdays, a trip to IAD to pickup the rental chariot on Thursday, and then, we ride.

-k-

The Mad Hatter has Landed

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My previously chosen Landry Fedora hat being out of stock, the fine folk at Miller Hats of Houston TX, had several acceptable alternatives. Of these, I chose the Gary Stetson Fedora, pictured here. There are subtle differences between this one and the Landry, but the Gary will do just fine.

I have purchased cars, computers and even houses with less deliberation and market research than I put into selecting this hat. I don’t know what this says about my priorities; I’d guess it doesn’t speak too highly of them. It occurred to me that this hat is probably the second most expensive article of clothing I’ve ever bought, which probably says a lot of not-so-wonderful things about the rest of my wardrobe.

I don’t care; I like hats, always have. And the sheer joy of having a hat that fits and doesn’t result in hat hair is one of life’s little pleasures that I’m just beginning to enjoy. Come racing season, though, I’m sure I’ll jam a one-size-really-doesn’t-fit-all Kevin Harvick cap on the ol’ melon, and deal with the mussing of the hair that will ensue. It is, after all, next to impossible to wear Racing Radio headsets over a fedora. Proper tool for the job, and all that.

-k-

Leonidas

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The release name for Fedora 11 is Leonidas. The name was announced at FUDCon F11, currently underway in Boston.

I’ve been following the proceedings from afar, via blog, wiki, and the Flickr. FUDCon’s heavy emphasis on virtualization and Selinux alone would have been worth the price of admission. Even a non-zero price of admission. I wanted to attend this one, but $DAYJOB activities, the fast-approaching Search for America Tour, and my general disinclination to fly combined in my deciding to sit this one out.

To wrap up the naming of Fedora 11, we see the release name relationship preserved thusly:

Cambridge(Fedora 10) was a warship (in the Royal Navy).
Leonidas(Fedora 11) was a warship (in the Union Navy).

Therefore, Fedora 12 will not be the name of a warship. More detailed protocols on Fedora relase naming are here. Pretty interesting process.

-k-

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