UPS: $45. UPS battery: $1030

Tuesday afternoon, I bought a very expensive UPS battery, although that wasn't the plan.

After the Nth power outage this year (queue thunderbolt) I decided to replace the battery in one of my Uninterruptable Power Supplies, since it was only giving me about 5 minutes before shutting down the system (the others give me at least 15 minutes each). So, deciding that the light rain wasn't bad, I proceeded to drive west on Beltline and fetch a replacement from Batteries+. Big mistake. I should've gone to any of their other locations. Why?

Well, at the same time I was driving (35 mph limit area) so was one of those F250s pulling a welded-metal gardener's cart. He's in the left lane, I in the center, and .. well .. BOOM! My driver's side window just exploded - no warning. I can only guess that his Gardener's Cart veered into my lane, or he opened fire. Fortunately (tempered safety glass) I wasn't cut or injured, but

1. my car door was gored;
2. my mirror destroyed; and
3. my window was GONE

Shaken, I tried to find a parking lot to pull into, hoping that the gardener would follow. He didn't. Technically, this is what's called a Hit And Run. The next day, I called the Addison TX Police, hoping there may have been a witness who got his license number - no such luck.

So, being only about 2 blocks from the battery store, I collected my nerves and got that %^&* replacement battery ($30). It was then that I opened the door and saw the 6-inch gash in the side of my car, and realized that this could've been much worse. Being 5pm on the day before a holiday, I had to wait two days to see the repair guys (I'd already called my insurance company to obtain The Procedure). I have a $1000 deductible, so that'll be my out-of-pocket cost. My last accident was in 1992 when I lived in Los Angeles, so I've forgotten some of the Subtle Nuances in the ensuing 15 years.

The repair guys say this will take 10 days and ~$3100 to fix. Happy happy joy joy?

raise rock. drop. document effect.

A few weeks ago, I checked the US Department of Energy's Insulation Fact Sheet and noted that I should have R-38 insulation in my attic, based on 3 factors:

1. new or existing;
2. type of heat (oil, gas, electric);
3. location, location, location

A quick measure showed that what's up there was only R-16 or so and using recent-technology loose-fill (blown-in) insulation would be the best.

Playing with the Insulation Calculator was educational. For my ZIP code, they recommend R-38 in attics where the fuel is natural gas; oil or a heat pump but R-49 for electric or LPG [Liquid Propane]. For all new construction, they're recommending R-49.

The contractor said it would take one day to "install" the additional insulation, and they were finished on schedule yesterday. Now I can wait for my energy costs to drop like a rock, right?

Conflict of Interest

"Bush wipes away Libby's prison sentence"

There's something very wrong with a system where one branch (the executive) can pardon commute the sentence of anyone who commits a crime dictated by that same branch.

"Go ahead, lie to Congress. We'll pardon you. We ARE the law."

Sure, it's been done before by prior POTUS - (Republican) Gerald Ford pardoning (Republican) Richard Nixon comes to mind, where the employee pardons his former boss. While The Mob was clamoring for Nixon's head on a pole, Ford made sure that we got none of that, and Nixon was free to write books and make speeches to anyone who would listen. It still doesn't make it right.

I wasn't surprised when President Quagmire made certain that Cheney's Loyal Servant (Scooter Libby) wouldn't spend so much as an hour in prison, for his treasonous act of lying to Congress. In earlier times, Libby would've simply been hanged, but under the (über corrupt) Bush Regime, his "sentence" amounts to "Freedom without Remorse". I'm sure that Cheney made sure that Libby knows one of the requirements of The Pardon is that he cannot write a tell-all book or even speak about this, to anyone.

Footnote: I thought about titling this entry "The fox guarding the hen house" but suspect many of you wouldn't get the meaning, especially since Elvis has already left the barn.

Mission Accomplished, The Sequel

According to Associated Press:

(ARTICLE DELETED)

Okay, let me get this straight: in the past two months, 3571 people were killed in Baghdad, and we're supposed to accept this as a SUCCESS?

Compare this to the number of Americans executed by al-Qaeda on 9/11: 2819. Also note that Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks (unless you're one of those IDiots who thinks the Earth is 6,099 years old, in which case you're already a lost cause).

Lately (to amuse myself) I've been telling people that it's obvious (!) that Dinosaurs Never Did Roam The Earth - those (often large) bones were placed there by A Creator as a way to test the faithful! Most seem to accept that. Oy.

the c word (lower case "c")

I went to my ophthalmologist yesterday to find out why my right eye's malfunctioning, and got the news that I have a cataract (early stage). Well, isn't that special? He gave me some drops (Travatan Z) to take each night and we'll decide what to do about this in 30 days. Until then, life's blurry on my right side.

PS: I'm posting this today using a Nokia 770, partly to see how practical it is (early verdict : a regular keyboard is much faster but the autocomplete feature is nice, and it's hard to beat the portability). I've used it to fetch email and do some basic web surfing, but had trouble with the (Pidgin) IM client.

The Buzz is Gone

I have two landlines coming into my home. One of those has developed an annoying buzz/humm in the past few weeks. Given the (near record) rainfall in June, I attributed the degradation to the weather. Also, there was No Buzz on the other line, so .. I had a workaround. Turns out the weather wasn't the problem.

Wednesday: finally tiring of The Buzz, I call TPC [The Phone Company - a/k/a AT&T] and they say they can have someone out tomorrow. Hmmm. "Okay," (I humor them) "that's great." They ask if I'd like a call from TPCT [TPC Technician] when he'll be aiming in my direction. "That would be spiffy," I reply.

Wednesday, early evening: automated call arrives, says TPCT will be onsite tomorrow between 8am-8pm (0800-2000 for you military types). Do they really expect me to hang around the house all day? That fish won't hunt. I have places to go, people to see. If they happen to arrive while I'm here, that'll be downright dandy. Otherwise, they can return.

Thursday afternoon: I return home from a Day Out There. No door hanger saying "sorry we missed you" and no phone call. Hmmm. So maybe 8a-8p really means "after 5pm"?

5:30pm: TPCT calls: "I'm en route, will arrive in 10 minutes." "Spiffy," I say.

5:50pm: DSL goes out (a 5x daily occurrence, so not remarkable). I wait a few minutes and it's still down. I wonder if TPCT arrived and is Working My Issue. I look in my driveway and see The Truck, and (in my backyard) a Giant Ladder perched against TTP [The Telephone Pole], and a small human at the top. I suspect it's TPCT, who arrived and silently went to work.

6:28pm: phone rings. Automated call says "sorry our technician didn't arrive today. We'll try again tomorrow." I am Most Puzzled.

6:30pm: knock, knock. "Who's there?" TPC Technician, to advise Your Problem Is Now Solved. "Huh?" says I. Turns out there was a short in the overhead line, from TTP to TGB [The Great Beyond]. Having replaced said cable, my world is now whole again. I check the dialtone (portable phone having been in my hand when TPCT knocked) and verify that The Buzz is Gone. I am now giddy.

Being the curious type, I ask "Might this also be why my DSL (which rides atop my Buzzing Line) burps N times per day?" "You betcha!" says TPCT (sounding Eager). I mention the automated call at 6:28 and TPCT says "they do that when we didn't meet The Window (recall: 8a-8p)" and he laughs it off. I make mental note that TPC doesn't know that 8a<6:30pm<8pm.

Hmmm. We'll see if my DSL now stays up all day. I'm not holding my breath.

Tomorrow: my visit to the eye doc on Friday (and -- the news wasn't grand).

passport renewal, step 2

Today, this arrived in the snail mail:



What I found most amusing about this are the ten (10) questions on that web page. I wonder if you have to "get them all perfect" before it tells you the status of your application? What if I don't remember the exact date I mailed the application? (or does it want the date I signed the application?)

One of the questions they did not ask:

"Are you going to blog about our incompetence?"

It would seem to make more sense to assign a tracking number to my request, and snailmail THAT to me along with a password, so I could "fetch the status" via a secure web browser. But no ... we're dealing with The Bush Regime, where common sense is not part of the equation.

For those of you keeping score, this is Day 16 since I mailed my renewal application.