Rat thoughts

Simply unique, indeed.



It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  At least at Costco.



You're hired!  You're fired!



U-turn fail.  It might not be immediately obvious, but the front of the trailer is sitting on the roadway.



Pony pulls the wagon or it gets the hose again!

I had to explain to my roommate why it was absurd that a pegasus pony would be pulling a wagon.  I've succumbed to the brony side.

Assorted pics I either forgot to upload or uploaded to Twitpic but not here.



The antenna I put up for my SO.  I wish I'd done more research; while this antenna works well, it's really overkill.  Separate VHF and UHF antennas would have worked better.



Saw this car with a tiger tail at the Omaha Costco.


   
Taking the Plattsmouth Bridge across the Missouri River.  These photos were taken back in October when I drove to Iowa to inquire about a marriage license.


      
After visiting the Mills County Courthouse, I stopped at the nearby Mile Hill Lake at the foot of the Loess Hills.  I walked around the lake, across the dam and up into the hills.  I used to go on these kinds of hikes all the time, but it's been a while and I'm a bit out of shape.



Christmas 2009, I bought stockings for my SO and my roommate.  Not just any kind, but stockings that were appropriate to their "furry preferences".  But I had a very hard time finding anything appropriate for me.  I finally found this stocking with rabbits that was perfect.



Birds are made from bird seed!



Have you given your dog a wet nose today?



Engrish is my favorite language.



One of my relatives!  It's a cute little kids book about packrats.



A Folkmanis Pack Rat puppet.


 
I've not had much luck getting pictures of the birds.  Every time I try to step outside to get a shot, the more colorful birds fly away.

Only took about 16 years....

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I drive the Ratmobile. (Technically, it's the Ratmobile Mk. II as I also called my previous car the Ratmobile.)

When I moved out here from California, I packed all my stuff into a PODS container.  My intention was to have the thing shipped out whenever I'd settled down.  Well, various events kept occurring every time I thought about the container and it ended up sitting in a warehouse in California for nearly 4 years.  I finally got around to doing something about it.   I don't have enough room for all my stuff here, so I rented a storage room in town.  It's a fraction of the cost of the PODS container and I'll have easy access to my things.

The container arrived Monday and my SO and I spent most of the day Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday moving stuff into the storage room or back to the house.  It's rather interesting going through all the boxes; it's kind of like a treasure hunt, except I'm finding stuff I that's already mine.

Monday evening my roommate handed me a credit card bill that he'd picked up from the mailbox and forgotten to give me...  3 weeks ago....  I was a week late on paying the bill so I got hit with a $39 late fee.  Ouch.  I paid the bill, then I did a double take.  I don't use that particular card very often and the bill was for over $600.  I looked through it and discovered a charge of $500 from Paypal.  I checked my account online and discovered another charge from Paypal for $350.  I immediately called the bank and spoke to their fraud department.  As I was on the line, they told me that another charge had just come in from Paypal for $500.  They canceled my card and will be sending me a new one.  I also called Paypal and got the run around from their phone system.  It won't let you go directly to the operator, you have to enter your account number.  They don't seem to understand that not everybody has a Paypal account.  The first operator I talked to hung up on my after I wouldn't give an account number; the second operator I just demanded to speak to the fraud department.  I also got a copy of my credit report and set up a fraud alert.

Tuesday I went to the sheriff's office and filed a police report, though it's unlikely anything will come of it.  But with a case number, I can now apply for a 7 year fraud alert on my credit report.

Thursday was spent trying to organize things.  I brought too much stuff to the house so some of it will have to go back to the storage room, at least until I can get things moved around and get some shelves put up.

Today we went grocery shopping and about a mile away from returning home, my SO's car had a blowout.  At least the weather was decent, not too hot, not too cold, and the ground was dry, and it was on a rural road that's very rarely traveled.  Still kinda sucks to change a tire on a dirt road, though.  Just a mile or so further and I could have gotten my car, returned to the storage room and gotten my professional 3-ton car jack and hoisted the car with just a few pumps instead of relying on the flimsy and slow emergency jack.  Fortunately it turned out the tire that blew out was actually the full-service spare; the tire that was supposed to be mounted was in the trunk.  They'd apparently been switched back in December when one of the tires went flat and was taken in for repair.  I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow.

Yup, the fuel pump was kaput.  $130 for the part, and about $400 for the labor.  Feh.  I also had them replace the fuel filter while they were working on it, for another $50.  Total with taxes and "environmental fees", $640.

And this is just going to cost me more in the future, because whenever the tank gets anywhere near low I'll probably freak out and buy gas at the nearest station, paying whatever exorbitant rates they're charging, rather than waiting until I get someplace cheaper.

Weird error I got last night just before my computer froze up.


Red Bull gives you wheels?


It's a Subaru WRX GTR STI!


I find it amusing that these two business are located near each other.



Look boss, da train! Da train!



I got to drive on an original piece of the Lincoln Highway today. It's so incredibly narrow, smaller than the side streets in most towns. In fact, to make it usable to today's vehicles, they've had to add a narrow concrete strip along the edges to widen it an additional foot or so. Even with that, it's barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other. It's also paved with brick; it was a jarring ride in my Caprice, I can only imagine what it would have been like in a rickety old Model T. There were no other cars on the road, and it's in a pretty isolated area, so you could get a bit of a feel for what this must have been like nearly 100 years ago.

If you're in Omaha, you can find this stretch of ancient highway by exiting W. Dodge (US-6) at 180th and head north about 3/4 mile.

Mario likes groping bunnies.



Redneck trunk repair

Apparently gas siphoning is becoming a real problem, especially in California where premium gas has already passed $4 a gallon and regular is getting close.  My grandfather always bought a locking gas cap for his cars, and I've always made sure my cars have them too.  It's about $15-45 for a locking cap; a full tank of gas for my car costs about $100.

From the April 22, 2008 issue of the San Jose Mercury News:

At Second Harvest Food Bank, thieves siphoned about 200 gallons of gas, about $800 worth, from three of the non-profit's delivery trucks, said Lynn Crocker, director of marketing and communications.

To safeguard against future thefts, food bank officials purchased industrial-sized locking gas caps for its fleet of about 20 deliver trucks, at a cost of about $1,500, Crocker said.

"It cost us quite a bit of money," Crocker said.  "For every dollar, we can distribute two meals.  It's like 4,000 meals."

Sitting in the parking lot of a Baker's supermarket (Deerfield Plaza to be exact) in Omaha, Nebraska, a Saleen with Hawaii license plates.  That must have been one hell of a commute.


(plate edited)