PolarLava::Blog

OK, I've caved in and signed-up…I feel dirty now.

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So as most of you know, I've been a big Twitter user for a longtime.  I'm a big fan and often encourage others to use it.  I find it very useful as a means to keep up with friends, but more importantly as a new source.  It's spoon feeding of a lot of what I used to follow via RSS.

Meanwhile, I've had little interest in Facebook.  I get really annoyed when people post links on Twitter or send me links to their Facebook page, but when I click it I can't see it!  You're required to login to view it.  Welcome my friend to the walled garden.  You can't just view the content, no you have to join the cult first.  Grrr.  I don't want to join, I don't want to really participate, I just want to be able to absorb what has been sent to me.

So over the past several months my reluctance to join has been decreasing.  I mean, I get why it's so popular and it is beginning to appeal to me somewhat.  And it's not like it's going away as it's kind of a pretty big thing.  ;)  Thus I've been toying with the idea of signing up and getting a Facebook account.

And now I'm really at a crossroads; Chris Muench is the first person to actually reach out and send me an invite to join.  Damn you Chris!  ;)  So now I feel I'm going to have to make a decision.  It's join now or keep being a curmudgeon —which really isn't difficult for me to do, and resisting.  Part of me is sad because I'm leaning towards doing it.  :(

Interesting…I got the invite on Monday (12/7 appropriately enough), but in the body it has "Invite sent: Oct 26, 2009".  That makes the USPS look like a pretty speedy service!

So earlier this week I was getting my kids ready for school and feeding them breakfast.  I wasn't aware of it, but my wife had bought raisin bread the day before, that my youngest and I both love.  Toast was an easy decision for her and would be for me on a non-workout morning, thus this was a bit more difficult for me.  I needed to eat more than that because I had worked out that morning.  Typically on those days I have either oatmeal (the plan that day) or cereal, both with nuts and fruit.  Sometimes I'll have toast and eggs, but didn't really want them and was a bit pressed for time.  but I really wanted raisin toast because I hadn't had it in quite a while.  What to do, what to do…

Rummaging through the leftovers in the fridge I came up with a wonderful and delicious alternative breakfast:

  
• Glass of Orange Juice
  
• Two pieces of Raisin Toast with Butter
  
• Half of a Grapefruit
  
• Half cup of leftover Roasted Brussels Sprouts!

So today at work a coworker, Marc Frank commented on one of our chat channels that "This might be the creepiest website ever https://www.tasteofindia.com/."

I clicked through and thought it was bizarre because this guy looked very familiar to me.  And then it clicked with me, I know this guy, or at least I think I do.  And after viewing the image and seeing it was "justin.jpg it confirmed it for me "Justin White".  .  It's a face from a rather grim and distant period in my life…he was my divorce attorney.

Truly a bizarre coincidence as I have no idea what the connection between him and the restaurant might be.

So on July 9th the NWS/CPC issues an El Niño Advisory.  Depending on where you live this might be good or it might be bad.  Or, a little of both as is the case here in Western New York.  For us it explains the bleak cool and wet summer we've been having (e.g. Today's high 71°F and a cool wind when it should be 80°F and humid.); although it finally looks like this week we are finally going to get some real summer like weather.  Yea!  On the flip-side, it means we likely get a warmer and dryer winter.  The precipitation in this part of the country is the opposite of what most of the country gets, as stated in the advisory.  And if it strengthens into the Fall as expected, it means we'll probably have a fairly mild winter.

So what does this mean for me?  A cool summer cycling season, but the likelihood of an extended and possibly year-round cycling season courtesy of a "warm", dry winter.  FTW!

By some amazing feat I've managed to keep a car —in this case my 1998 Honda Civic EX coupe, intact for the outlandish period of 11 years and 1 month and captured it as it hit 150,000 miles.  Ironically right in front of the GM plant on River Road that I loathe for oh, so many reasons:



For those that know of some of my past driving exploits (see September 10, 1986), this is a rather remarkable feat for me.  It's certainly the longest period of time I've owned a car and about double the mileage of the most I've ever accumulated.  We've talked about replacing it a few times over the past several years, but it's simply a great car.  But the time will come for it to go, as it would be nice at this point in my life to have a 4-door car.  But it's hard to stomach a new car payment after being without it for the past 7 years that this one has been paid for.  It no longer rides quite like a new car, but it's very well maintained and averages 33mpg (30ish in the winter, 36 in the summer!)  And although it doesn't shine or smell like a new car, and it only has a couple of small rust spots, it's still in good condition.

It's due for an oil change and the high speed front-end shimmy is back again, so I believe the left front tire also needs to be replaced.  And earlier this week the wipers started to operate very slowly when you first turned them on.  And of course today when I was out it poured rain and they won't work at all now.  Thank God for Rain-X, one of the greatest inventions ever even with working wipers.  So obviously a new wiper motor is needed.  But even with this pending maintenance it's far cheaper than replacing it.  And now part of me wants to push it to 200,000 miles.  It's certainly a very realistic and doable prospect, it is a Honda after all.  So even if I do decide to move —that's a little more than another 3 years of driving at my current rate, somebody is going to get a very low cost, but awesome used car if I do.

Roll, Baby, Roll!!!