I....HATE.....CARS......

Every car we own came down with some weird "Spend
money on me" spring fever in the last month.

Car #1
Something I can't even remember, that cost about
$180....followed by the main bearing in the transmission
and the clutch for another $880....

Car #2
Exhaust system rusted out in several places....$230.

Car #3
Exhaust system rusted out in just one place....$90.

Add to that the fact that "inspection" is done when
your birthday falls (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!),
so tack on another $120 in fees.

All to facilitate traveling from point A to point B
when necessary.

Feh.

The Return of Mr. L

It's hard to miss me when I never seem to have much to
say anyway, isn't it? You probably didn't even know
I was missing.

Last week I noticed some weird stuff going on with my
computer. I remember these things as being symptoms
of a dying battery on the mother board, so after a couple
of days of thinking about doing it, I finally went to the
store and bought a new battery. Then I took the computer
apart to get at the old one and install the new one.

When I fired it up, the machine refused to boot up because
the BIOS now needed to be reset. Sigh. OK....I took it
apart again to find the jumper on the motherboard.

Unfortunately, the sections of this old board I use that were
labelled "bios" and "cmos" were NOWHERE NEAR any
of the jumpers....dammit....it's my own fault for piecing this
computer together with a friend of mine from "whatever
was around"....other peoples' cast offs, etc.

I searched for the manual for the board....of course, I couldn't
find it. So, I had to take the CPU to someone who had the
documentation/knowledge and PAY THEM to do it. Grrrrr!
Now I'm sure the stupid manual will turn up.

Anyway, I had lots to complain about while I was gone. Maybe
I'll remember some of it and share. What I can't figure out is:
How did the pioneers survive the wilderness without hundreds
of e-mails per week??

Speaking of Old...

As the cashier at the supermarket handed me my change
today, she said, "Have a nice day, young man".

I wondered why (if I'm a young man) - both my pinky
fingers, the knuckle joint of my right index finger, and my
entire left index finger ache like hell whenever
it rains?

Must be that "adolescent bursitis" you always hear
about.

But, on the plus side, the woman DID offer to share
some meds with me. Legal ones, but still....

Young and Stupid

My "gig car" is in the shop, so last night I had to use an old bass
cabinet that is thin enough to fit in the back seat of our other car.
It's an inch or two thinner, but it weighs about 20 lbs more and has
no wheels....so it requires carrying.

By the time I got back home, all I could think was, "Was I a lot
stronger all those years ago, or was I just stupid???" I used to
carry the damned thing up/down a flight of stairs at our
apartment back then, too!!

As someone once told me: "Don't get old. It sucks."
Apparently I missed the window, though...!

New Music

Wow...

I found a couple of artists I really like that I didn't know about
before....these are the CDs I picked up this week:

Kirk Fletcher - I'm Here and I'm Gone

Blues - and damned good, too.
He's playing in the Fabulous Thunderbirds....I didn't know that
when I bought this CD. I'd kind of lost interest in that band
a few years ago. Maybe it's time to see what they're up to
these days....but I'll probably buy Kirk's other solo stuff
first.

Ahleuchatistas - What You Will

Gnarly, sometimes dissonant instrumental rock. Not for everyone.
I'd never heard of these guys at all. Bought the disc simply
because it gave me that weird feeling that only people who
obsessively gather music probably understand. But now
I'll have to buy their other discs, too, dammit....

I also bought a new Krups coffee pot and an annodized
pan, but they aren't making much noise.

Fahrvergnügen Deprivation

I can't get no....fahrvergnügen....

And I've given up trying.

Remember the days when people would go out for a drive?
Just to drive. And see "stuff". Is it just me, or are those
days gone forever?

Gas cost about 37 cents per gallon back then, I think.
Maybe now it's too expensive to just drive around aimlessly.

But never mind the cost - it's hard to enjoy driving anywhere
when you have the "brake slammer" in front of you. You know
those types....there's nothing in front of them, but they constantly
step on the brake. Why????

Then there are the people on the highway who have some perverse
fascination with "being first". No matter what speed YOU go,
they have to get in front of you. First they tail-gate to try to
intimidate you, then they blow by you to "make a statement",
even if you're in traffic and they're not going anywhere anyhow.

Where I live, I can't go anywhere without finding a traffic jam.
I often think that somewhere, up at the front of the pack, are
people who've been hired to slow things down by driving
ridiculously slow (or by crashing into something). Maybe
this is just a state-sponsored programme to get us all to
slow down.

Bends in the road seem to scare people. If there's a curve on
the highway you can't see around, the ONLY thing to do is
slam on your brakes and slow to a crawl - because who knows,
there might be a thousand-foot drop ahead....it could happen.
Same thing with hills - maybe it just falls off at the top....better
take it at a snail's pace.

I think one problem is that are just too many cars. But I have a
solution: I'd like to become a gov't-appointed officer whose
only job is to pull over drivers who act like idiots.
I'd inform them they are too stupid to operate a heavy
metal object at high speeds, take their license away and
that's the end of it. Start walking. Let's thin the herd.

However, this system will only work if *I* am the sole officer
with enforcement power. We don't want to take any chances
on how the definition of "infraction" is interpreted. Don't worry,
I'm willing to travel!

I Do Not Sound Like That!

Yesterday I discovered an old Til Tuesday LP here.
It brought back memories....let's go back to the
god-forsaken 80s....

When Til Tuesday was still a "club band", I brought
my then-girlfriend to hear them at a local bar.
"You've got to hear the bass player's voice...she sounds
just like YOU", I said to my girlfriend. The two of
them had "separated-at-birth" voices.

But my girlfriend was not amused. In fact, she was
thoroughly pissed off that I had even suggested she
sounded like Aimee Mann...or the other way around...
I'm not sure who was the eldest.

Fast forward a few years. Although no longer dating,
my ex and I are still friends. One day I hear her
happily accepting a compliment from someone who
tells her she "sounds like Aimee Mann". This time
it makes her happy. What the...?!

It has been suggested that once Aimee got famous,
then it was OK, but not before. But that would be
shallow. Har har....