JDoors

Octavarium ! It came in the mail yesterday, along with the following: The Chemical Brothers , We Are The Night And, for the holidays: B.B. King , A Christmas Celebration Of Hope Octavarium is excellent, though I'm gonna have to say I prefer Systematic Chaos , so far. Interesting that Octavarium adds another influential sound, Styx , yet another of my favorite bands of all time. The Chemical Brothers , so far (I'm in the middle of it at the moment), is exactly what I expected, and I expected to enjoy it immensely. Don't know if I'l get around to the Christmas album but ... It's B.B. King

I KNOW! I guess I haven't left all that angry driving behind me. I sure thought I did. I also know people (including me) can justify anything. Anything. I felt, at the time, justified. But it was stupid. I was willing to let the truck get in front of me even though I knew it would go much slower than I would have gone. So, why not let the jerkball in front too? He'd be stuck behind that same truck too. So, what difference would it have made? None. Hey, you're never too old to learn (or ... RE-LEARN ... since I thought I'd learned that lesson a long time ago).

For several miles a black Chevy pickup truck's in the right lane, I'm in the left. At each stoplight they accelerate quickly but I catch up. We're pretty even-stevens for mile after mile, they accelerate like mad, then goes slow, and I catch up. We get to an intersection where the two lanes merge into one, we're at the stoplight, and, knowing they accelerate fast then go slow I COULD have sped up to get ahead. The next five miles have a high speed limit and no lights, so ... do I want to let them get ahead, only to go slow for the next five miles? Sure! Let them get ahead. I'm in no particula

Too funny.

The Eagles , Greatest Hits , Volumes 1 & 2.

Well, the silence lasted a couple of weeks. The "tone" calls are back.

Dream Theater , Systematic Chaos (on continuous play -- again). Oh God, help me ... BTW, my source for CDs has all their albums now (that didn't take long after they began stocking Systematic Chaos ), so Octavarium is on its way, with the others to follow as funds permit. ------ Oh yeah, paid $2.79 S&H and got the CD of Octavarium for free!

Less than a week. That's how long it took me to gobble up the last of the candy. Oh God -- Do I look fat?

Darnit. I love food but for various reasons almost never dine out. But keep this going, I wanna enjoy the food by proxy! There's a couple of co-workers who torture me by describing their dining experiences ... "The so-and-so was incredible!" I walk away, slobbering, and trying to quiet the rumbling in my stomach. So torture away!

Cheap Trick's Greatest Hits . The best ones: Dream Police Tonight It's You I Want You To Want Me If You Want My Love Surrender The Flame

My neighborhood's changed too, but as the older folk move on the ones with kids move in, so there's always SOME kids. A friend lives in a neighborhood that, for some inexplicable reason, attracts trick-or-treaters from far and wide. Hundreds of the little buggers. I was particularly disappointed that the older kids didn't come 'round, I usually unload the remaining candy on them, "Take a handful!" Gives 'em a momentary thrill, as if they'd hit a jackpot. Interesting this year that due to the delay in DST it was still light out 'til six or so. I don't know how that'll affect the years when I

Wow, a slow Halloween this time 'round. Maybe thirty kids, and no older kids later in the evening like we usually get. Anybody need a bunch of candy?

Though I missed most of the newscasts today I haven't heard any bad news about a quake (guess I could look it up, it's the Internet after all). The only evidence I've seen is on another board where there's a thread titled something like, "We had a minor Earthquake today." The main event may have been out in farm country with only minor shakes in populated areas (out there it's as common as a rain shower, "What's that? Oh, it's nothing.").

I'll check 'em out. Haven't browsed any parts stores ... come to think of it, I haven't been in a parts store in years. The Explorer's only needed the AC and fan belt idler pulley repaired, pretty good for a ten year old plus Ford (Knock Wood!). I've been watchin' the streets for similar Explorers to see how their boards are holding up. The only ones that still look serviceable are from much newer trucks that use a different design (haven't looked up close, but it looks like they did what I suggested above: Have the entire board covered with plastic over a metal understructure, rather than th

Today's another 70's-80's day: Alice Cooper (hits CD), The B-52's (hits CD), and Black Sabbath (Master of Reality ).

After people telling me, "Dream Theater! Dream Theater! Dream Theater!" for the longest time I only recently heard 'em, and bought their latest, Systematic Chaos. So, not knowing their previous work this is a short comment. Yeah, they're "like" ... well, everybody else (if you ask me). But to me, it's like taking all the best bands I love, and loved, and having one album of all their music combined into something new and fresh (so ... what has Emerson, Lake & Palmer done lately?). I hear a riff and think, "Whoa! Rush!" or "Whoa! ELP!" and it just keeps surprising me. THAT's it, it keeps

Oh c'mon, you "aim" at the drain, the water's running, what's the harm? Or, so I hear.

According to your logic he should'a got an NSX, better mileage and more reliable. (But it ain't a 'Vette , and ... IT AIN'T AROUND ANY MORE! ) Gotta admit Honda fixed that ugly car syndrome with the Civic, even the four doors look much better (but weren't they smaller than the Neon/PT Cruiser back then?). However, boy, did they ever hit the Accord with an ugly stick. That front end! Put a bag over it already! (Yeah, I know it's supposed to be due to European pedestrian safety regulations, but don't we get an entirely different car than they do? So ... Why did we get that pug?)

Back when the PT Cruiser was designed American manufacturers (and consumers) weren't obsessed with high mileage while "foreign" makes have to sell their cars in countries where mileage is FAR more important (five dollar plus gas will do that), but ya have to wonder why, when it's based on the Neon architecture, it doesn't do better than it does. It surely has to do with American manufacturers dumb obsession with undercutting the cost of "foreign" makes. "Yeah, see, ours is just as good but cost a thousand bucks less!" But they're not fooling anyone, they're not "just as good," they're a thousa

Yeah, I did the search. Didn't take all day to peruse my options, but from what was on the first results page it seems anything that'd be acceptable to me cost about the same as I can get the OEM parts for (@ cost). My buddy suggested replacing one at a time so I'm not out a ridiculous amount of money (to me, anyway) all at once. It's my "frugal" nature, I can justify NOT buying them (it's a ten-year-old truck, they still work, they're not important to the functioning of the vehicle, many aftermarket parts look chintzy, etc.) but find it hard to justify replacing them (umm, they look bad?).

That was being pretty optimistic. Crystal clear Fall day. Though I mowed Sunday it'll need it again soon (just to keep it tidy, it's not "over" grown).

Yeah, that's getting up there into OEM-replacement cost territory though. Saw too many newer Explorers (mine's a '97, thinking of '00's I've seen as recently as yesterday) that have rusted or rusting running boards to believe I'd find any good used ones (or any that would last much longer). I have the technical skills to produce a homemade version, but not the artistic skills. It'd look ... well ... homemade. Another option is to remove them altogether. When we removed the tube there remained three large, homely looking brackets. Didn't crawl under further to see how much work it'd be to r

Another corollary to the "I can't really get bothered by ... " aspect is comparing different types of vehicles to one another. Yeah, a Civic sport gets better mileage than a PT Cruiser, so, fold the seats down on that Honda and stick a fridge in there. I did that with a Cruiser, I know that fridge wouldn't have fit in the Civic (no way it would've fit through the hatch -- MAYBE if it didn't have such a high liftover ...). Or stick four people and their luggage in the Tacoma and take it on a long trip (without getting the luggage wet when it rains). Though I know you hate the PT Cruiser and can

When I bought the Explorer it was five years old and in near-perfect condition. Then a few spots of rust showed up, but it was on the running boards so I didn't think it a priority. However, five years later, the boards are rusting through. A friend and I took one off and took it to a shop that'd fix anything, even if it would only keep you going for a little while longer. He wouldn't touch 'em. "They're shot." It would take too much effort to clean them up, slather on a ton of filler, then paint, only to have them rust again from the inside out. Replacements, at cost, runs $400 or so. Uh,

I'm on the fence on that one. See, I also hate to hear people complain about how tough it is to drive in the Winter. "Get four wheel drive idjiot!" Yeah, there are Subarus and such with FWD or AWD that get decent mileage, but if you need space for lots of stuff or tow anything bigger than a breadbox (now there's an old man saying -- have some of you ever SEEN a "breadbox" -- that is, a place to store bread rather than the electronics one), well, SUV's have their place. And while a Subaru will get you around quite well in most conditions, it's not as good as an SUV during a blizzard (or floo