Month: September 2008

Squeeky Clean

This weekend Rachel and I cleaned our vehicles.  The weather was beautiful, and the vehicles were begging for it.

As a teenager I detailed various automobiles professionally for Royal on the Eastside.  The highlight of my career was when I detailed Bobby Knight’s car.  The exciting part was delivering the keys to him.  I had to interrupt an IU basketball practice session.

Back to the point.  Neither of us had waxed our vehicles for at least 3 years, and it was really showing.  I used to be very anal about the amount of wax (minimum of 2 coats).  I would spend a few hours every weekend maintaining the appearance of my ride.

As you can see, my truck has a big problem on the hood.  It’s a common problem with GM vehicles actually.  All in all I think it still shines pretty good for an 11 year old vehicle.

Rachel’s little Rio is clean and happy.  This car takes the brunt of our transportation needs.  Since we carpool, we take her car.  It gets great gas mileage, and you can put that car just about anywhere!  We’ve been talking recently about trading the Rio in on something more suited for our needs.

I plan on keeping my truck until it’s wheels fall off.  It’s good to have “the old standby” around, just in case you need a second vehicle.  Plus it helps with some of the hauling tasks required of a homeowner.

While my truck isn’t the most eco-friendly vehicle, it is only driven an average of 8k miles a year.  It also helps with getting around in the sometimes treacherous winters.

Deflated

Today the RCA Dome, better known to all as the Hoosier Dome was deflated.

This was done to assist in demolition, as it has been replaced by Lucas Oil Stadium (In the background).  The space occupied by the RCA dome will become yet another expansion of the Indiana Convention Center.

Many memories were made in the dome, but no more will be made there.  Rachel and I purchased a piece of that roof as a keepsake.  I highly recommend to buy one yourself if you have any fond memories of the dome.

I took this panorama picture the last time we visited the dome during ISSMA marching band finals.  We were there to see my niece Sabrina play the clarinet for Forest Park.

To get a better grasp of the scale, look at the 1/2 size version here.  I had to make the picture that much smaller just to fit within flickr’s size limitation.

Back in the day, J&B on the ROX did an episode based on the changing of the dome’s name.  It’s called “The RCA State” and definitely good viewing.

These are the changes I don’t really like to see.  I still miss Market Square Arena.

In these times, I’m really starting to hate corporate sponsorship of whats seems to be everything under the sun.  Can you believe that the Verizon Wireless Music Center’s (formerly Deer Creek) box office is sponsored by Taco Bell? 

Cha Cha Cha Changes

Many changes are in the works right now.  Like many Americans, the economy has affected the bottom line of our wallets.  It has been over a year since I’ve had a full time position, and it seems to me like I’m starting to be pigeon-holed.

I’m going back to Ivy-Tech, for the 5th time, I believe.  I plan on starting the spring semester of ’09.  For a while it’s going to be general courses.  I think my best bet is to get a degree in a technology field, such as CIS, or computer networking – the same degree my father has.

I don’t really want to go back, but it seems like I need to just to obtain real employment around here.  The other plus, the FSSA will pay for all expenses through the Vocation Rehabilitation program.  So I won’t be out anything but my time.

I’m going to actually bring my business activities down to a lull while in school.  I will still provide my memory saving services to individuals who are seeking them.  I’m just not going to be working at it like I once did.  There is simply not enough time.

Life isn’t that fun anymore, and I don’t have much else to say except for this update.

 

My Neurotic Tendencies

I have a problem, which showed itself in a bad way last night.  I can’t help tinkering with computers.  I need help.

Rachel had a meeting with My Sisters Closet after work, so I was home by myself until about 8:30.  Because of the current issues with our main computer, we only have the laptop right now.  When we purchased the laptop it came with Windows Vista Home Basic pre-installed.  Neither of us had any experience with this new (at the time) operating system.

After a day or so of tinkering and trying to figure it out, Rachel decided that she wanted XP on it.  I was fine with this, as she was going to be the main user of the computer anyway.  I wiped the hard drive and put a clean install of XP Pro on it.  Not til later would I realize that doing this would void the warranty on the machine.

I went on a hunt for drivers for the many devices a new laptop has and came up short.  When I contacted dell for help, that is when I found out about a interesting clause.  If you downgrade the OS on a machine purchased from them, all support is rendered void.

At first I didn’t care at all.  Since issues have occurred with my other machine, I’ve become somewhat paranoid.  I wanted to get the computer reverted to it’s original state.  I contacted Dell again, and they sent me a set of discs that actually re-imaged the machine to it’s original factory state.

Rachel and I had talked about this, she was very hesitant about the change.  Since I have some experience with Vista under my belt now, I feel much more comfortable with it, if  you didn’t know it’s just XP of a different color.

When Rachel arrived home last night, I was about an hour away from finishing this changeover.  She was furious and actually made me think for a minute that she was packing up to move out or something.  Over the years I have done several things to computers that have hurt her.  I deleted (on accident) a majority of her papers for her masters degree and other various files that were important to her.

The sad part is that I do this with out even thinking about it, like it’s just a everyday sort of thing.  The whole time I was doing this, I thought she would be happy when she got home.

I was wrong.

Good Drinkx, Good Conversation

After 3 years of e-mailing, sending packages and working on what has become a major project in my life, Editor B and I finally met.

He and his family evacuated from hurricane Gustav.  When their respective schools decided to close until Monday, they decided to head back to Btown.

He sent a twitter update inviting all to Upland at 8pm, also sending me an email asking I attend.  I had a busy day, but I wouldn’t miss this for anything in the world.  I didn’t want to miss this chance.  The last time we tried to meet, tornado warnings and a worried wife kept us from meeting.  B was heading back to New Orleans the next morning, on the long road home to rebuild their home and New Orleans after Katrina.

When I first arrived on the scene, I was almost too afraid to enter.  Upland was severely crowded, something I had never seen before.  People were parking up and down the entire block.  I was lucky and got a parking spot right next to the door.

After waiting a while in the standing room only crowd, I introduced myself.  H-T columnist Mike Leonard and his wife were there as well, then the interesting Paul Smedberg arrived.  We finally got a table a few minutes later.  Paul reminds me of a comic, but I can’t remember his name at the moment.

It was nice to meet Mike, as I’ve emailed him a few times and I’m sure he thought I was some local crazy of some sort.

I was amazed at the subjects of conversation, ranging from books to the lack of economic prosperity in this town.  We went on to talk about how children change your life (not in a bad way B), to the founding ideas of the Green party (which I didn’t really understand until last night).

Back to the subject at hand, It was a pleasure to finally meet you B.  You’re everything and more that I had expected you to be.  Most conversations I have are intellectually lacking, last night was a much needed shot to the brain.

Hopefully I can make the trip down to New Orleans sometime soon. 

Fit For a Princess, Almost

Over the weekend Rachel and I painted Taylor’s room “Pink Gingham.”  We also installed a new 6 panel door to her room.  Her door was the only one in the house that would not latch.

I wanted to do some other things to her room, but we really did not have the time.  Hopefully we can get this done soon.

I will have some pictures as soon as I get my  main computer back from the shop.

Phase II of her room includes painting her trim and door “whipped white,” and installing new baseboard trim and a new bi-fold closet door.

Next home project on the list:  Basement remodel.

The only task that really worries me is the wiring work I want done.  I need to hire someone to pull some cable and cat-5e wire from the attic to the basement.

We plan on gutting it to the block walls, and starting fresh.  I need  to re-wire some outlets and switches.  We are also going to rework our old and tired brick fireplace.

I hope to have this done by next spring.  Hopefully my wife will release her kung-fu grip on our checkbook so we can finally utilize our entire home.  Since we’ve moved in our basement area has been only used for storage.

Pain

I have been in a lot of pain recently.  What really puzzles me is that I haven’t been involved in any rigorous activities.  The only thing I have been really doing lately is sitting on a chair and looking at a computer screen, or laid back in my recliner after work.

My main areas of complaint are my knees and calves.

I had (or at least I thought) a knee injury from a car wreck back when I was 14, but it hasn’t been hurting for years.  The other knee I really have no idea about.

My calves have been really tight lately, I’ve been having muscle spasms on a semi-regular basis in that area.

I just don’t want to go to the doctor, I’m not making much money right now and when I’m not at work I’m not being paid.

I hope this ends soon.  I have big plans that require my health be in good shape!