The Adventures of Recalcitrant Toy

[Poll #1257324]

Wouldn't THIS be nice? . Of course at a $600.00 per month lease price, not all can afford it, but perhaps some of those H1 and H2 buyers can....

I'm watching CNN where they're showing people who have set up a network to collect food that would be wasted from restaurants, from farmers who are donating vegetables that might be cosmetically not perfect but perfectly good, that are being distributed to families and others in trouble.

I'm sure this group in CA isn't the only bunch out there doing these things, but what a concept. Buffets with food that isn't used, "day old" stuff that people don't want to buy but is perfectly fine, TONS of food that people could eat being distributed is such a wonderful thing, and costs hardly anything. And if restaurants would just cut their portions by maybe 20% we'd have even more food savings, PLUS a bit of win in the fight against obesity in this country.

I am afraid things like this are going to become more and more important to Americans as the economy slides. Hopefully it will get better soon, but in the meantime, great stop gaps like this show that there are things we can do to help.

And looking at the amount of rain we're getting, I'm not surprised. It is just POURING down and it is loud. I'm so glad that the dogpooh got all of the leaves out of the beds so the plants will get a good soaking. This is likely the first year that has happened, since our previous yard service would just blow the leaves into the beds and never clean them out. I complained, was ignored, then stop paying until someone came to find out why. I pointed out the beds and he was surprised they had done that, ordered them cleaned out, I paid up, and about a month later, they blew the leaves back in. Then the final straw was them leaving the gates open AGAIN with a release of hound that it took me forever to round up, and given that we live off a VERY busy Georgetown Pike, and they had been warned many times, I gave up and fired them.

The new lawn service "A dogpooh and his Tractor" do a much better job, and he gets to be a redneck on a tractor, yee haw. When he puts a gun rack on it, I'm going to be in serious trouble.

Now to hope my landscaping doesn't wash away.....

This was it... enough was enough. I loved my ML55 but it was time to go. 12 mpg was just no longer acceptable, and I had filled it with gas for the last time. Bah, and again humbug I say....

I had been looking at cars and researching cars for the past few months, and finally decided that it was time. They had the car I wanted in Springfield, so off we went to get it, and to trade in ye ole 55. So I got me a nice green (in more ways than one) Prius with the Star Trek console. And verily thus, we brought it home and named it Booger. Perhaps I'll think of a better name later.

Anyway, while we were at the dealership, the sales critter attempted to show me his brilliance by pairing my phone with Booger's on board bluetooth. DENIED! Hmmm...how could this be? Bluetooth is a standard, and should be implemented as such, carrying data blissfully through the air and into the innards of the Booger. But no... Upon further investigation I found that I must update my Treo to a more peachy version of Bluetooth in order to partake of the Booger's lovely touch screen. I thought, "how tough can an update be?" I learned.

First you wipe out ALL of the data on your phone, resync it to your computer, create a new user, download a bunch of files, upload the files to the phone, have the phone install the files, delete the new user, re-pair your phone with the computer, re-upload all your information, etc. etc. This process took a LONG time.

When I finally got through all of that and took the Treo out to Booger, I was hopeful that all the cool touch screen stuff would work and I could transfer my phone contacts from the Treo to the Booger and all would be well. Uh, no. One must "fool" the Treo into doing the right thing so that the bluetooth is even recognized by the Prius (making a phone call while the Prius is 'looking' for the Treo seems to work). Once that part is done, somehow the Prius then doesn't see the contact files you're trying to send from the Treo.

So how come Palm can't fix their damn phones so that you don't have these ridiculous issues? This be annoying! So I started doing a hunt to find out which phones are supposed to be completely compatible with Booger. Then I found they also had to be compatible with iSync, AND usable on Verizon. This part is no fun whatsoever. I finally found a phone that might work, so I ordered it to try to find out. We shall see.

For my next trick, I'll post about how the car won't allow you to dial or use most features of the navigation console while the car is moving..... There is a work around.

Despite Palm's inability to do the right thing, Booger is still pretty cool. Gas mileage on the way home, driving it just like a regular ole gas car critter thing = 42 mpg. w00t!

I will make no public comments on the following subjects:

1) The BR elections
2) Sale of Witchschool via ebay
3) Which Correllian tradition is "real"
4) Further details on pet output procedures
5) The underpants gnomes
6) Which brand of tin foil works best

Thank you for your cooperation.

I woke up but not quite. I guess I'm feeling kind of numb. How strange. I had dreams that I was back in Boston as an undergrad. Maybe this means I have something more to learn. Of course I do, but what is it THIS time? :-). This morning I've already learned that dog noses can be wet and cold, trying to get out of bed without placing feet firmly on the floor can be amusing, stress causes zits, and wondering why I can't read the computer screen is a sure sign I need my glasses. What more would anyone need to know? :-)

The edge of the pie crust is the best part. It's too bad we couldn't have a pie made up solely of the edge crust. Same thing with pizza. Yum yum. Yes, I admit, I'm weird. But then, I'm the product of a warped society :-).