Friends,
This is the 1,402nd post on this here wee blog. I just wanted to drop a quick note to thank you for hanging in there with the Jauntiness (and the Littleness!).
Your appreciative pal,
bob
No iPhone 3G Activation Problems Reported In Idyllwild
Makes sense, really.
The nearest Apple store is 100 miles away. AT&T stores are requiring in-store activation that isn’t working this morning for the new iPhone. Meanwhile, our piney paradise remains tranquil and serene with just a hint of damp from last night’s rain showers. Not even a whisper of trouble or technical issues, though.
Now that’s something I can get excited about.
Your pal,
bob
UPDATE: No reports of iPhone problems, but updating the iPod Touch to version 2.0 was a pain in the tush. For those of you who don’t care, there are reasons why you might. For one, Apple’s servers simply collapsed. I read a rumor yesterday that iPhone activation lived on the same servers as the update. Neat theory, but dotMac switched over to MobleMe at the same time. More servers down.
By the way, the killer app for iPhone and iPod Touch is Remote. You can use the thing to control iTunes on a Mac anywhere on your local network. Change albums! Change volume! Control remote speakers! It’s really worth the installation headaches. I love it.
Fourth of July Photo Blort!
Hey Monkey! you say, how about more pictures and fewer words? Get on with it!
It’s parade time, so let’s go!
All 57 state flags were represented…
…and great giant fire trucks.
Yikes! Local skinheads! With water cannons!
Thankfully, Miss Idyllwild was there to make us feel better by waving…
…making it safe for the hot rods to come out…
…which is all the kids really wanted in the first place.
More in a little while,
– bob
Mild Panic Attack Caused By Burrito, Not Website Failure, Experts Warn
Friends,
If you were looking for some webcam goodness from my Secret Alpine Laboratory this morning, the entire bobtherieau.com empire is down. This is surely one of the more mournful bits of news you may hear today, but nothing compared to what that Soyrizo burrito’s gonna do to you.
Yikes.
– bob
Red Flags
Friends,
Today, being the first day of July, is marked by the extreme fire danger in my little plot of paradise. Will some damn fool decide that his need to see things flashy and sparkly and boomy override the public’s right to not live in a giant ash bin? The safe and sane fireworks stands are open in the desert this week. Cathedral City (home to the Jaunty Parents) and Indio (the “City Of Festivals,” primarily of dirt) have thrown caution to the wind and decided that fireworks should be legal! Whoopee!
I hope their fire departments are willing to drive up the hill to help out. You know, if it should prove necessary.
– bob
Don’t Stuff The Little Toy Racing Car
Friends,
My new car didn’t come with a radio. In this case it’s fine since the dealer took some money off the price and I turned around and called up my dear personal friends at Crutchfield on the internets and spent that money on a new stereo. While I’ve been waiting for the shipment to arrive (damned UPS Ground…), I’ve been enjoying the engine sounds, the occasional squealing tire, and general car noises but that’s starting to get old. I needed something new to while away the time during my commute. Something to repeat over and over, like a mantra.
Amazingly enough, I managed to think of one while late braking into a decreasing radius left sweep at about 20 MPH over the speed recommended by four out of five dentists. Staring at the rocks, it suddenly occurred to me…
– bob
July, Minus One
Friends,
Spent last weekend prepping The Lodge for a crowd over next weekend and I’ve discovered something interesting: The level of filth accumulating in my house is substantial. There’s some very dirty dirt in the forest. That’s a given, but I’ve also got a significant number of critters. A different dead bug in every corner, actually.
Bugs, people!
I even brought some home from the nursery with the new plants. As long as it stays warm enough to kill the mosquitoes, everything will be fine. Right?
– bob
Okay, So Here’s What Happened…
Friends,
Miata, me bought. What am I driving right now? A rented Ford Focus sedan with an automatic. That’s the short version. Am I pleased? Not even a little. Here’s the long version:
I found the Mazda (file photo, left. not actual car what me bought.) on Autotrader.com at a dealer in Escondido for a very reasonable price. Maybe too reasonable as it turns out. I’ve been jetting about in the thing and have been thrilled with how tight it turns in. How it holds corners. The growl and slight rasp on acceleration. Oh, wait, acceleration.
On the way home driving up the hill this afternoon, every stab at the throttle was met with that growl, but no forward progress. The clutch had given up for the most part, but I nursed it past the lower vista point. Then I turned out to let somebody by and just couldn’t get started again uphill—only down. Down to the closest Mazda dealership. Good thing too, since the car was reluctant to go forward even on the flat.
They’re going to replace the clutch, maybe tomorrow, maybe Thursday. The tiny little clutch in my toy car must be easy to replace. Just move the rubber bands to one side and consult the Hello Kitty Service Manual. Seriously, how hard could it be? Too hard for the selling dealer who checked out the car represented as “without obvious flaws” to me apparently.
The next time I say (which I actually did) “what could possibly go wrong?” please proceed with the dope slap. I certainly deserve it.
– bob
UPDATE: The clutch is done and still slips when it’s hot. Just a little, but slipping is not good. The selling dealer is going to kick in half of the kilodollar price tag, so that’s nice. The repair shop broke stuff though, so I guess I’ll take a trip back there this week. Such fun you should never have.
A Brief Interruption
Good morning,
I’ve been a little busy over the last couple of days, but it looks that things are calming down now. Keep an eye on this space for more goodies later in the day, including pictures of a tiny car!
Your pal,
bob
An Unpopular Question
Friends,
Speaking of punishing gas prices, particularly in California where the average price is generally fifty cents more per gallon than the rest of the country (except alaska and hawaii. – ed), remind me why we’re not doing more domestic drilling. There are rich untapped deposits of oil right off our coasts, oil shale just sitting there in the upper Midwest, and **gasp!** the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Should we just get used to five and six dollars per gallon and hope for some neat magic battery technology for our new cars? Can you really tell me that public transportation is the answer? Remember that Riverside County canceled bus service to my little town in the ’80s due to lack of ridership. And that was the short bus.
Frankly, I’m inclined to slap that silly grin off of the pundits who think that high prices are good. They posit that we’re saving the planet by reducing our gasoline consumption, like it’s a merry choice happy citizens are freely making. We still live in a big country with vast spaces between where we are at the moment and where we need to be for the next appointment. And more often then not, the bus doesn’t go there.
– bob
Happy Gay Marriage Day!
Dearly Beloved,
Today is the day that same-sex couples can start legally marrying here in the great state of California. Of course, this is controversial and many religious groups are opposed. So opposed that they’ve collected signatures to put an initiative on the November ballot to quash gay marriage once and for all. They are missing the point.
Suddenly adding a brand new pool of married people will be a tremendous economic boon to the state. Sure the wedding industry will prosper, but think how the market for divorce attorneys, custody mediators, and others in the Break-Up Industrial Complex will explode! Now that commitments between life partners are legally binding, separations become that much more complicated and harrowing.
Note to religious fraidy-cats: You’ve got nothing to worry about here. The GLBT (and other letters of the alphabet, I’m sure) folks just want a piece of the cake. They’ll find out soon enough that the grass isn’t all that green on your side of the fence.
– bob
Are You Kidding Me? It’s A Bonus Edition Of Two Sentences From A Book!
The Little Jaunty Players
– Present With The Greatest Pleasure –
– A Feature –
– That Makes Mental Patients Giggle With Delight –
– Right Here On This Blog –
– With The Brilliant Name Of –
Two Sentences From A Book! Times Two!
Luis Alvarez walked into my office looking as though he was ready for a fight. “Rich, I just got a crazy paper from Raup and Sepkoski. The say that great catastrophes occur on the Earth every 26 million years, like clockwork. It’s ridiculous.”
I continue to blame Al Gore.
Sometimes A Miata Is Simply A Miata
Friends,
Yes, gas prices are pretty outrageous, but I’ve been forced to step back a little…
In my little piney paradise at this moment (who knows what’ll happen tomorrow), a gallon of regular unleaded petrol goes for $4.89. I don’t buy gas up here. I buy gas down in the desert, where I work, and filled up the Mighty Dakota with $4.43 gas. You know, because it’s much cheaper.
I’ve been warned off buying a used British Racing Green Mazda Miata because it’s either too girly or actually built for gay men. (Cripes, am I gonna do this? Okay, here goes…) I’m not really sure about the characterization. I think the image the car conveys swings both ways. (thank you! I’ll be here all week!)
But let’s do the math with an extreme example. Presume the Miata gets an optimistic 28 MPG. The Jeep Grand Livingroom gets a meager 17 MPG. I drive 100 miles every day and we’ll presume $4.50 per gallon. When will buying a $9,000 used car make financial sense? Anybody? Bueller?
I’m thinking not for decades. And that whole scenario presumes that I’ll continue the desert commute throughout that time. That is not assured.
The car is really supposed to be fun to drive though. Thoughts?
– bob
UPDATE: Here’s a number—three and a third. That’s how many years it takes, given the above numbers, for the used Miata to pay for itself. Maybe the idea isn’t so crazy after all…
Happy Birthday, Denise!
Friends,
It’s my sister’s birthday today, so please don’t bring up the fact that she’s very old. Not too old to be a fine mom to her adorable daughter though, or to wield a mean broom (left, file photo).
So, happy birthday Denise! Your gift is coming soon!
– bob
The ‘To Do’ List
Friends,
It’s a beautiful day up here in my piney paradise. Many projects to complete today to make up for the lack of activity over the last week or so. I’ve started on the next set of meds, so while I can breathe better, the top of my head feels like it might fly off. So it’s a good news/bad news scenario, no?
Brother, can you spare some bee pollen?
Your pal,
bob