A Spring Weekend

This was, I believe, is the first weekend this year to be above 80 degrees here.

Saturday morning stared at 7am for me. at about 7:30 I was the winner of maybe a dozen calls on my cell phone. They were from the girlfriend's son. At two years old, he's having a wonderful time getting into his mom's things. He knows right where the redial button is, apparently. I'd say "Hello?" and he'd go tell the dog that she was being bad. I think. He'd call her name and follow with, "No!" My guess is the dog was licking his face, but I'll probably never know for sure.

The g/f and I went to a comedy club Saturday night. I exaggerate when I say it was "night"; The show started about 5:30pm and went for a couple hours. Jack Willhite was headlining, with... Let's just call him "Fred". Jack wasn't too bad. Fred was a little better, but that's only because I didn't get a few of Jack's bits (when you start talking Country and/or Western music, I know nothing). Of course Fred isn't on the club's roster list for some reason, so I can't even point you in that direction to see the guy. Yeah, I suck for not remembering the guy's name.

Here's a nice dialog with the gal that I was trying to order a beer from. Either her hearing is about non-existant, or my voice is one of those that is just not heard.

Me: I'll have the Cherry Wheat.

Her: Some cherries, okay.

Me: No, CHERRY WHEAT.

Her: Oh, Cherry daiquiri.

Me, leaning closer to her this time and pointing to the BEER section on the menu:
No no... I want the Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat Ale.

I wonder if I need to not go there ever again if the guys there commonly order just a bowl of cherries and/or cherry daiquiris...

And then there was bowling after the late night of laughs ending at 7:25pm. You know how bowling shoes are supposed to slide as you bowl? No? Well they are. I would have done better sliding if I'd just left on my no-skid-mark-the-shit-out-of-any-floor-surface shoes. Everyone for two lanes either way could hear my shoes squeak to a halt a good two feet before the foul line.

Of course, a properly thrown ball is also supposed to curve in to the 1 & 3 pins (1 & 2 for southpaws), but oh well. I ended two games with 225 (total, not each).

---

Sunday was a day of car-washing and oil-changing. Since there was no rain, snow, or blizzards in the forecast, I saw that the birds decided to relieve themselves on the car's bumper between the wash and this morning.

The oil change went okay, except for that small amount of oil from the oil filter that spilled onto the exhaust pipe as I removed it. So I'll be that car that smells like burnt oil at every stop-light for God knows how long. I apologize.

I had a combination DVD/VCR deck that has been pissing me off to no end recently. Any DVD I put in would skip every minute or so, and the lens cleaner didn't do anything to help. So, thinking forward, I went out and bought an up-converting DVD player. Not a true HD or Blu-Ray thing, as I won't be jumping on that band-wagon any time soon (if ever).

Up-sides: No more damned skipping. On sale for a decent (even affordable) amount.
Down-sides: No tuner. No way to tell if the up-convert feature is worth a damn until I get an HD monitor, which isn't likely to happen any time soon.

The lack of a tuner is a pisser only because I don't have a long enough piece of coax cable to go from the antenna to the TV. That's easily resolved with a trip to Radio Shack for a coupler. The store that I picked up the player at had no coupler & wanted $20 for a 6-foot length of coax. That seems expensive to me. Actually my initial reaction was, "You've gotta be shitting me!"

That is all. No, you may not have that five minutes back. They're mine. ALL MINE!! AH-HAHAHAHAhahahahaha...

---

Midnight Star, Operator

What season is this??

Washed the car over the weekend, and then saw this on the local news channel's weather forecast: "A WINTER STORM WATCH goes into effect for the foothills and mountains late tonight and will continue through tomorrow."

WTF?? When did we skip summer & autumn to give winter another go already? Guess I'll stock up on minstrels to tide me over until spring comes back again...

---

Jim Dugan, Let Me Go

P1126, I stab at thee

The check engine light came on again. Fed up with taking the damned thing to the shop, I went out and bought a code reader for about $10 less than the dealership charges to run their diagnostic test. It came up with P1126. "Thermostat function" is all most online places define it as. So far, I've had the thermostat, the knock sensor and the coolant temperature sensor (uh, isn't that what the thermostat is for?) all replaced. The knock sensor was a different code according to an earlier mechanic trip, but they seem to be related from what I've read out there. The more complex they make 'em, the easier (and more expensive) they are to break, it seems. So essentially, I'm getting this light because the computer can't see what the coolant temperature is? Damned nosey computer anyway! And since no news MUST be really really bad news, on pops the light. I mistakenly cleared the light because I didn't RTFM. I'm sure it'll come back, though.

There was a link that I had stumbled upon that mentioned two other potential pieces that could need replacement, but of course I lost that link. I think I remember the jist it though: Remove the ignition key and replace the rest.

---

Metallica, Nothing Else Matters