Thursday night, my car all but died.  Friday morning, I was supposed to have a fix, but didn’t.  Friday afternoon, I was supposed to get picked up, but wasn’t.  Friday night, I was so stir crazy I couldn’t stand it. 

     Saturday morning, I was supposed to get a call to help with the car, but didn’t.  At 11AM, I decided, “Screw it, I’ll find someone with tools to help!”  And while he got the bolts out of from behind the exhaust manifold — and directly under the intake manifold — to change the thermostat, I removed and replaced the water pump.
     After all that, I started onto the process of body work where I hit the deer back in June…
     Now, the car is fixed.  As long as I leave the air conditioning on… which means, there’s obviously a temperature sending unit bad, since it’s not turning on the second radiator fan.
     I also managed to scald both my hands in process, get various cuts, and break the top of my right hand — it now has something akin to half a golf ball atop it, just like two months ago. 
     Only one word comes to mind: F#&$.

     And so, last night, stir crazy and exhausted, yet unable to sleep (two and a half months now), I went to walk around downtown.  At Market Square, I sat and reminisced about the days of old when Preservation Pub was Mercury Theater.  I thought about the Snakesnatch Lounge and all the other places that were there twelve-plus years ago.
     I thought about celebrating Pirate Susan’s birthday there in 2006, when she stood atop one of the benches near the door of Preservation Pub, arms outstretched, yelling, “I am an asshole bleacher!”

     But even more, I thought about the day the Wildcat and I went to Preservation Pub… QSL later… and that night… and that kinda did it for my mood, because I miss her more every day.

     A drink would’ve been in order, but I had to quit that after a few too many bad nights…

     Then I learned that last night, a friend of mine was sexually assaulted in her home by a “friend” of hers who she actually knew very little about.  Packed her kids in the car, drove them to a mutual friend to be watched and took her to the ER.  I prepped her a little beforehand about what was going to happen, having been through this with other friends I’ve known, and just pretty much tried to be there for her so she didn’t feel totally alone.
     Fortunately, the KPD investigator was really good, as was the crisis unit who performed her exams and tests.  They were pretty unbeatable, and I was out of the room most of the time — I didn’t need to be there the whole time, anyway, because it just makes me wanna kill someone that much more.

     She’s really young … and all I could think about the whole time was how bad I missed the Wildcat, how bad I missed the kids, how much they meant to me, and what I’d do to someone who tried something like that with any of them.

     Finally discharged, I took her to get some food after her battery of medication, fill another prescription and back to her place, where I stayed until her sister could get there.  I can handle the “crisis” portion calmly and capably, but for the rest… she’s gonna have a long road ahead.

     Sometimes, life is hard.

     And sometimes, other peoples’ are even harder.

     I had a guy write me a bad check back in January.  He made it good with another bad check.  And another.  Finally, when I got back to Knoxville and could rip him apart for it, he made it good.  With another bad check.
     Today, I followed him to two banks.  I got my money.
     “Don’t ever, ever, call me again,” I told him.
     He gave me an extra hundred.
     “I just want to make amends,” he said in the voicemail.
     Some things, you just can’t undo. 
     In my opinion, I deserve more than a hundred for putting up with his ass for 15 years.

     I’ve been working on cars a lot lately.  Weird stuff. 
     There’re some youngsters who have some pretty good ideas, but they really don’t know anything about cars.  That’s where I come in… and it’s kinda like butting heads sometimes… and since I don’t everything about every car, I do my own bit of screwing up, too…
     But… if we can keep this project on track, man, it could be worth a small fortune.
     Anyone wanna invest in an unknown, really kickass project, lemme know.

     I got a used ‘96 Delco CD player off Ebay.  After installing it, I found that the motor doesn’t spin.  I stuck my original AM/FM/Cassette back in.
     Tonight, I tore it down to the mechanism — after locking my keys in my car and using Jim’s Super Bar and a coat hanger to get ‘em out — and found that, sure enough, the motor is toast.  That sucks.
     Thanks, butthole!  Appreciate ya!

     Today, I went to Catscratch Jane’s for a burger.
     “Mark!  Where’s your Wildcat?” asked Shirley the bartender.
     “Uhhh, in Kentucky,” I replied.
     “Hey, wait a minute,” she said.  “You all are still together, right?”
     “Yeah, it’s just hard right now.  I moved up there, and all Hell broke loose, so I’m back here.”
     “I thought you moved…. Why isn’t she here?  She loves you.”
     “I know, and I love her more than anything in this world.”
     “She needs to get her ass down here!”
     “Yeah… It’s just hard right now.”
     “Didn’t you all get married?”
     “Nah, not yet…”  I didn’t feel like going into those details.
     “Listen, Mark, you two are in love.  A blind person could see that.  The next time you talk to her, you tell her to give old Shirley a call.  We’ll straighten that out.”
     “Will do.”
     I paid for my burger and beer, and left thinking about it.

     I miss you, baby.  I love you.  Maybe you oughtta call Shirley. 

     It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything logical and sensible, so here goes…

     While everyone goes on the Hybrid trip, paying astronomical prices for cars with no real fuel savings, some of us hang on to older cars from the 80’s which have real fuel savings without the need for all the extra garbage.  Cars like the Pontiac Sunbird/Chevrolet Cavalier with the 2.1 OHC engine, or even the Subaru 1600DL, still get 40+mpg on the interstate.
     Yes, they really do.
     My 1984 Sunbird, for instance, consistently ran at about 42mpg and the OHC made it a nice, quick car.  Meanwhile, the old Subaru consistently ran up to 48mpg. 
     With kick-ass gass mileage available with older cars, why bother with a hybrid?

     The fact is, as far as Automobiles go, very little has happened since the 1980’s except to make vehicles more complex.  Despite the Government’s cries about efficiency, and even tax relief for high-mileage vehicles, gas mileage has done nothing but suffer.
     Meanwhile, our dependence on foreign oil has increased exponentially.  Why should we continue to subsidize the economies of a chosen few in foreign nations when we could easily reduce our dependence while increasing our innovation and exports?

     There have traditionally been two barriers: Political and Economic.

     Our artificially inflated economy in 1990’s and our Government’s subsequent “lifestyle of excess” bear a substantial portion of the blame, as we simply made too many under-the-table deals with foreign countries.  
     As a case in point, China, for instance, continued to have Favorite Nation status.  Mind you, this was absolutely necessary to make it a viable and reliable country for low-cost, high-quality manufacturing like its predecessors, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.  However, the strong increase in the Chinese economy came at the expense of other Asian economies.  Proof of this is shown in the economic collapse in 1997, and the subsequent recession which struck all other APaC nations in 2001.  Meanwhile, tax and import subsidies, cuts and rebates for domestic corporations purchasing Chinese products have continued, while China continues to produce the “same old, same old” products cheaper than we can manufacture them at home.

     Economically, with our own post-9/11 “lean times,” many domestic corporations have adopted the attitude that research and development of new technologies is too risky, and thus continued to attempt to make innovations geared in familiar directions with familiar technology.  Using familiar technology (with cheaply acquired foreign components) has allowed for more modular designs, thus reducing the amount of labor, manufacturing and maintenance costs in our domestic auto factories.  For corporations, this spells profit even when their economic future is unclear.

     In this video, Amory Lovins comes up with some seriously compelling ideas.  It’s a long one, so grab a snack:

(Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMTCNOlozTA)

     It’s really compelling stuff. 

     And, besides, something like this should even make the Moonbat segment of the global warming argument happy.  But then again, they’re usually really easy to get calm once you know which buttons to push. 
     I mean, dinner with E.T and a roll of Reynold’s Wrap can go a long way.

     In a surprise move yesterday, July 4th, 2007, 24-year-old Al Gore III proved that he’s more honest than his father, Al Gore, Jr.  Apparently excercising his own form of “independence,” the privileged pothead was pulled over and arrested for driving more than 100mph, and for possession of Marijuana and a number of other drugs… While high…
     The Al Gore, Jr., camp quickly came to the rescue, offering the explanation that the entire thing is a pubilicity stunt to show people that the hybrid-electric Toyota Prius can be driven at excessive speeds, therefore making it a reliable and viable alternative to traditional gasoline-powered combustion engines, all the while getting 55mpg.

     Apparently, Al Gore, Jr., thinks the rest of us are as full of shit as he is.

     It’s also worth noting the fact that a 1981 Subaru 1600DL would get 52mpg, and the 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier with the 1.8 OHC would get 49mpg, without all the excess hybridization… Those are actual mileages from real-time, personal experience.
     Instead of burning a little gas, Al Gore would have us all drive cars which are put together with numerous refined gases and petrochemical products.  This, of course, shows a need for more petrochemical refineries and plastic manufacturing plants, in addition to the astounding increase in global energy usage to manufacture things “a new way.”
     So, ummm, isn’t that certainly worse for emissions than a few more gas-guzzling SUV’s…?  All so that we can add a measly 5-8mpg?
     Am I missing something, or does the math not work?  Shouldn’t we be doing better?

     Can you say Voodoo Economics, boys and girls? 

     I knew you could.

Tip: Les Jones at his new blog, Rock Stars Against Live Earth.

Do you have a floppy drive? No? When was the last time you used a floppy? My daughter used floppies on occasion to get work from home to school, but now she is using a thumb drive. Most of us see a floppy disk as a leftover from the computer days of yesteryear. And in computer days, yesteryear comes pretty quick.

So, with the floppy quickly becoming as remote as the 5.25 inch floppy, or cassette loader to us, why is a floppy the icon for “Saving” on so many pieces of software? And will it continue on until the only floppies are in museums?

This is already happening in another common, but overlooked place: you car dashboard. Do you have an ashtray in your car? Lighter? No? But I bet you have a cell phone charger and it has a plug on it that is the size of a cucumber. Why? Because it fits the cigarette lighter hole that is still there even though no one uses a cigarette lighter in the car or even has an ashtray! That big ol’ hole will likely remain in your dash for decades. In 50 years, no one on Earth will smoke and we’ll have hover craft to zip around in running on cold fusion and there will still be a huge hole in the dash we plug our devices into and no one will know why.

Way off topic perhaps, but I am POed at my car choices. Not too long ago, the Chrysler folks had created the Viper, the PT Cruiser and the Prowler. They made really unique cars and trucks, whether you liked them or not. You knew what they looked like and if you liked it, you really liked it.

I bought a Sebring JXi because I liked the style. When I heard they were bringing back one of my favorite old cars, the 300, known as the “Beautiful Brute” back in the day, I was excited. They rolled out the concept for the convertible and I drooled. And now I get an email about the new Sebring convertible and it is not butt ugly, its so boring I despise it. No style or character whatsoever!

What happened? The new styles for the trucks were a huge success. The new 300 and Magnum are doing well and their look is not to my liking, but very popular and cool. I don’t understand the dumbing down of this car…