Beer abuse

The perils of living in a valley

If you keep up on the blogs, you are aware both my brothers (L'Adunata and The World According to Pedro) have commented on the temperature inversion here in our wonderful Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Well, it's been four days of dry weather and the inversion has returned. Really it doesn't take much for it to happen, but that set aside let me talk about my experience with it. This morning I get up, there is a dusting of snow on my auto, it is dismal outside as if it were cloudy. Maybe a bit foggy, but there is definitely no sign of sun. I was thinking "did it snow a little last night or is this just fogging?" For those who have never experienced this phenomenon, when it gets foggy enough the airport will seed the fog (see the second paragraph at the link) to help clear it out some of it. The result of this is a form of snowing at ground level usually leaving a nice layer of grainy snow on everything. So I leave from home, which is in the valley, and head of to work, which is on the bench. Most of the drive is quite dismal still, but as I get close to work I feel I need my sunglasses. By the time I get to work it is a nice beautiful sunny day. I can't see across the valley, but there is plenty of sun.
On the subject of seeing across the valley, I will cover that later.

Pushing my buttons.

It's that one little button. There is one button on the keyboard that does function, does light up, but yet I really don't know what it is for. That would be the scroll lock key. Yeah, there are several keys on the keyboard that may not make sense, pause/break, any of the function keys above f4, but they don't have their own light. So back to the scroll lock, so far the only thing I have found it will do is lock you on one cell in Excel, but really what good is that. Other than that, what purpose does it serve? It won't keep your document from scrolling up or down. It won't keep this webpage from scrolling. So what is it actually locking. We already know what num lock and caps lock do. I even find that they are very useful (though my keyboard doesn't have a num lock key, which I removed, because I hit it sometimes when I am trying to hit the seven), but still no use for the scroll lock. Well, I guess it sits there, most of the time with its little light off just waiting for an actual use, I am guessing it did something back in the day of DOS based programs, but even there I don't remember having a use for it.

Pay it forward.

This is the kinda story that helps lift the Christmas spirit. I found this at this link on NBCPhilidelphia.com. Let me give you the synopsis.

A couple in a restaurant in Port Richmond, Pennsylvania, payed for their meal and then the meal of patrons at another table on Saturday. This started a chain reaction, where people kept paying for others in the restaurant. Nice way to spend a Saturday during the Christmas season.

Car Doors – Episode II, Return of the Torque Box.

In a garage far away there lived a shell, the remanants of a Mercury Cougar once driven. This dilapidated old Cougar boarded the transport “Flat Haul Express” to find its long lost cousin to help breath new life into her.

Yes, we have added another kitty to our garage. This is referred to in the car restoration circles as a “shell”. It doesn’t run, has no interior and is in pieces. But it does possess something the first one didn’t, a mostly rust free underneath. In the time we have owned our cougar we found out how costly it is going to be to repair those pesky little structural parts called “Torque Boxes”. The shell we just got cost half of what it would have been, and the best part, we can drive the first one while we get the second one ready for the transplant. Here’s how it goes.

We are going to strip every, light, trim, and interior part off of the shell, as well as remove the engine, transmission and brake system. Do a full clean up and restore of the main body, inside, outside, top and bottom. Then we primer and paint those parts. Then, during one winter we remove ALL of the parts from the first Cougar and put them into the restored one. Projected timeline, by summer 2011 we hope to have the fully restored and painted version on the road, but that’s being optimistic. This will be an interesting couple of years.

The next few pictures show you the first one compared to the new arrival. The first one is on the left of these pictures, the new arrival on the right.

Inside the trunk

Left rear wheel well

The dreaded torque box

You can see more pictures at http://s873.photobucket.com/albums/ab291/Tabithas_Trials/The%20arrival%20of%20Chapter%202/

Should Jerry Retire?

I have said a basketball game isn't played until the fourth quarter, but apparently it seems that Jerry's M.O. for the Utah Jazz is that a basketball game isn't LOST until the fourth quarter.
Wednesday the Utah Jazz played against the L.A. Lakers, their arch nemesis. The game looked good, they held up well against the Lakers through the first quarter when the score was 24 each, and the second quarter the score ended the half Jazz up by 4 at 52 to 48. Third quarter took a slight down turn ending with a score of 71 to 73, Jazz down by two. Well for those who have followed the Jazz by now you know, if a basketball game was only three periods of 12 minutes the Jazz would have left with a loss but with respect, instead, as we know, the Jazz have perfected the 4th quarter flop. And once again, this game proved it. The game ended with the Jazz losing to the Lakers with a score of 101 to 77. That is a 24 point loss. What happened Jerry, did you let them go to sleep?
Again, for those of you who have followed the Jazz this has been a constant in their games. They work well for three quarters only to go to sleep during the fourth quarter. Even though the roster has changed several times over the last two decades it continues to happen. The only constant during this is Jerry Sloan. It is my opinion that it is time we call for Jerry to retire. I can not remember how many times I sat on my seat getting frustrated as I saw a Jazz lead get beat down during the fourth quarter, and this is part of the reason I don't follow the Jazz as well as I used to.

Jerry, after 22 years of the fourth quarter flop, I think it is time you retire.

Well, Saturday it was 28 and snowing, Sunday it was about 30 and cloudy until around four, then the wind kicked up and the temp dropped ten degrees. Today started out with 12 and 30 mph winds.

I want 28 and snowing back

Super High Output

For those of you who know us, you know that we once owned a first generation SHO and really liked the car. Then ford came out with the second generation SHO, with the same Yamaha designed V6 engine. They added an automatic transmission for this generation, still a very cool car and awesome engine. Third generation Taurus also offered an SHO, however they replaced the high output V6 with a V8. I thought the V8 was just a copout to use a bigger engine instead of using a well designed high output smaller engine, and the gain was only 15 horsepower. This generation was the end of the SHOs run. I have always hoped they would revive the SHO moniker and a high output V6 to go with it. Well, recently I read the Ford is reviving the Taurus SHO. So I checked out the Ford website and found that for 2010 they offer an SHO. This SHO offers a turboboosted 3.5 litre V6 engine putting out 365 horsepower. Naturally I had to go check this new SHO out. I looked at the pictures and it is a reasonably handsome vehicle and I thought with the turbocharged V6 it could be a blast. I went down to the local Ford dealer and checked one out. Nice options, seats were quite comfortable. Then came the test drive. Ok, yeah, it's turbocharged, but sure did not stir my soul like the first gen SHO we owned. I must say, Ford may have revived the moniker, but sure not the soul of the SHO.

Put in my place?

Yesterday I am driving home from work along Foothill Blvd coming up to the intersection at 2100 East headed south. I was in the right lane coming up to the red light. The cars in the left two lanes had already stopped at the light. I was planning on stopping at the line as I am about three car lengths from the line this bicyclist goes from the right turn lane right in front of me to join his buddy, he didn't even check to see if anyone was coming. I put down my window and said "Hey dude, do you realize I just about hit you." he returns with "Dude, chill the F*** out." I responded with "I was just saying I almost hit you, maybe you should look before you cross traffic." By this time the light had turned green so I put up my window and went on. Just surprised that the guy got so up in arms. I didn't curse him out. I said it in a friendly manner, yeah I yelled a bit but just so he could hear me over the traffic. Anyhow, it amazes me how defensive people get when you almost run them over on a bike.