Not Necessarily Interesting News

Let’s see. My father went in for his second knee replacement surgery on Wednesday. He now has two bionic knees. Hopefully once he’s all healed up he’ll be a lot more mobile. I plan on taking my son on a hike of the Escalante River basin in a couple years and I hope that my father would be able to join us.

My wife and I have also been busy remodeling my friend Bill’s old kitchen. I guess the former contractor left him a bit high and dry so we’ve come in to finish the job. We’ve spent a couple nights working on it and so far have taken it from this to this. I still need to drop in the sink and the trim work and I’ll be done with the kitchen. We discovered that the bathtub faucets were done wrong and fixed those. I’m sure we’ll find other fuckups before we’re done. The guy did a good job painting but that’s about it. For us, it’s been hard but satisfying work. It’s nice to know you’re good at something else that you can use as a fallback career when/if the tech industry job doesn’t pan out. We’ll have it done in a couple more days.

Today at lunch I bought Civilization IV. I think I know where my nights will be going for the next several weeks/months. I was one of the lucky ones and got their bonus mistakenly shipped French Tech Trees. I really don’t feel like learning French and thankfully they’ve already started shipping out the correct ones upon asking. Sitting on the shelf at home I have Civ I, II, and III. I’ve been anxiously awaiting the shipping of this one. I can’t wait to get it installed and start playing.

Last night we were watching TV and heard a bang and then the lights went out. The living room was lit up by a flash of blue light. I knew what it was instantly. Someone hit a power pole somewhere in the neighborhood.
Sure enough, a couple of kids were drag racing down the street behind our house and one lost control and went off the road and through a power pole. Sadly, he was completely uninjured. So, even though he totalled his car, he’ll still be convinced that he’s invincible behind the wheel.
This happens on a regular basis around here. People see the wide roads and think the 30MPH speed limit doesn’t apply to them. This was the second at that particular spot in the road and I lost count of how many have happened near my house. Just a couple months ago a biker was killed when he lost control of his bike a block up the street and went through a fence. A week after that I had a drunk driver wind up in my front yard.
I don’t know what to do to get them to slow down but the county sure doesn’t seem to care. Occasionally they’ll have a deputy work the street for a day but it doesn’t help.
*sigh*

This past weekend my son and I join the Texas Rovers for a trip to Padre Island National Seashore near Corpus Christi. It’s the longest stretch of undeveloped barrier island in the world and you’re allowed to drive on the beach for its entire length. Mom stayed home because she had other obligations so it was just a ‘guy’s weekend’.
The drive down was cold, wet, and windy in the Defender. We were bundled up for the 50degree temps that came along with the first cold front of fall. We hooked up with a couple other Land Rovers and headed south. By the time we hit Corpus temps were back up to 70+ and sunny. We finally could shed the jackets. Next time I’ll watch weather a bit closer and maybe put the full top on the truck so we don’t have to freeze. (Read on …)

I took the Defender out to the Texas All British Car Day on Sunday. I also did their road rally on Saturday which was a lot of fun. Got to drive over 60miles of backroads all over Williamson County.
My Defender 90 took First in Class again this year. It’s a kind of hollow victory though as myself and my friend Chris from Texas Rovers were the only Land Rovers that showed up. We were lost in a sea of MGs, Minis, and Jags. So, that’s another plaque to add to the wall even though I felt like letting them keep it. Our trucks are so close that it’s really a coin toss.
I spent hours getting it clean for the show and in 4 days I’ll be taking it to Padre Island to play in the sand. It’s happier dirty anyways. 🙂