Happy Birthday, Lauri!

Happy Birthday to our friend Lauri in Crawfordsville, Ind.

Oot and aboot (that’s Canadian)

Hastings still hasn’t got their Wifi up and running again, so I’m online at Barnes & Noble at $3.99 for two hours.

I reset my home desktop screen resolution to 800x600 before I left and when I connected to it from here with Dell Remote Access, it was much easier to use. It also occurred to me after I went to the low-res screen setting, that I could probably make those changes remotely, since I can access Control Panel as well as all of the other programs and files.

Did I mention how much I like this Dell Inspiron Mini 9?

I didn’t think so.

Rowdy college kids on spring break

Stepdaughter Morgan and her boyfriend are on a spring break road trip to Savannah, Ga. and she's uploading the trip pictures to her Flickr account as they travel.

The embedded EXIF data indicates this was taken at with the boyfriend's SONY DSC-W55 camera 2:46 p.m. yesterday when they were in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Exposure was  1/125 at f/2.8 at ISO 100, in case you're curious.

Indianapolis Star employees to take a 15% pay cut

Another reason why I’m glad I quit/retired in October’ 2000. This announcement went out to employees at The Indianapolis Star yesterday:

The Indianapolis News Guild is sad to inform you that Gannett is now
seeking to cut the pay of newsroom and building services employees by 15 percent. The lawyer for the company provided us with a one-page 'supplemental' proposal this afternoon that he said would implement this uniform salary reduction either 1) at the time we reach a new contract with the company, or 2) at the time both sides reach an impasse and cease talks.

Geek stuff

I spent a few minutes this afternoon installing and testing Dell Remote Access.

It’s kinda like gotomypc.com, which lets you link up with your home computer from anywhere in the world and instantly see your home desktop, with the ability to run programs and perform actions just as if you were at the keyboard at home.

Gotomypc .com costs about $20 a month, while the Dell product (which doesn’t run on Macs) costs $9.95 a month and comes with a 10-day free trial, of which today is the first day.

I discovered immediately that when you take the text and images that are scaled for a 24” monitor and shrink everything down to fit on an 8.9” mini laptop screen, it gets very hard to read and work with. I may have to reset my monitor resolution to something like 800x600 whenever I leave home with the expectation of remotely accessing the computer with my mini.

But it does eliminate the need to install a bunch of memory hog software on the mini.

Winter’s last gasp

And a week ago today, I was riding in the warm Florida sunshine, secure in the knowledge that when I got home to Arkansas that winter would be a distant memory.

The good news is that, like most Arkansas snows, this little dusting of less than a half-inch, will be gone tomorrow.

Spring is less than two weeks away!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
All of the snow was melted by 5 p.m.

Friday the 13th is coming

Cartoonist Walt Kelly had a running gag in his daily comic strip “Pogo” about Friday the 13th being unlucky. In fact, he referenced the 13th even when it didn’t fall on a Friday, having one of his characters say something like, “Friday the 13th is on Wednesday this month.”

Well, it’s on the 13th this month and it’s also someone’s birthday.

Happy birthday a day early, Someone.

The sky is falling!

WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT FROM 4 AM TO 10 PM CDT THURSDAY...
THE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IS NOW IN EFFECT FROM 4 AM TO 10 PM CDT THURSDAY.
A MIXTURE OF RAIN AND SLEET MAY BEGIN TO AFFECT NORTHEAST ARKANSAS AND THE MISSOURI BOOTHEEL AFTER MIDNIGHT. BY SUNRISE...THIS MIXTURE WILL CHANGE TO SLEET AND EVENTUALLY TO SNOW. SNOW WILL CONTINUE DURING THE REST OF THE DAY ON THURSDAY. SNOW AND SLEET ACCUMULATIONS OF UP TO TWO INCHES CAN BE EXPECTED.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW...SLEET...OR FREEZING RAIN WILL CAUSE TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR SLIPPERY ROADS AND LIMITED VISIBILITIES...AND USE CAUTION WHILE DRIVING.

Let's settle this citizenship question

More than 300,000 Americans have signed a petition calling for a definitive determination of Barack Obama's citizenship qualifications to serve as president of the United States.

If you believe, as I do, that this question needs to be resolved, go here and sign the petition online.

It is in everyone's best interest that this question be laid to rest. If Obama is proven eligible, we can all move on and forget about this issue. If he is determined to be ineligible, the Constitution must be upheld and all of his actions since Inauguration Day must be nullified.

Whether you think this is a burning Constitutional issue or a silly distraction, it's time to resolve the matter.

T-shirt of the Day

The temperature is supposed to top out around 80 today, so it’s a t-shirt day for me.

And today’s shirt is from Nepenthe, the fabulous restaurant along California Hwy. 1 in Big Sur. It’s one of my alltime favorite destinations. The food is great and you just can’t beat the ambiance.

Read all about it on their web site here.

Enjoying DST and warm weather

I sure do like Daylight Saving Time.

We’re sitting on our screened back porch – Maria with a book and me with the mini laptop – enjoying the post-dinner dusk.

There’s still enough light for the webcam to shoot a fuzzy portrait of the author.

Parts is parts

I had to return a rental DVD to Hastings this morning, so after dropping it into the return box, I went to the cafe, got a cup of coffee and sat down to surf the Internet with my new Dell Inspiron Mini 9.

But I couldn't get a Hastings Wifi signal. I found weak signals from two other businesses in the area, but nothing from Hastings, which should have boomed in with five bars.

Finally, I asked an employee if the Wifi was down.

"Yeah, it's down for awhile. They have to get a new part," she said.

Part? Like it's something mechanical instead of electronic?

Whatever. At least I got a cup of coffee.

Useful photography

 

Hmmmm. That house looks strangely familiar.

The Mini 9 is here

My new Dell Inspiron Mini 9 arrived while I was on the road – too late for this trip, but I’ll have it for future trips.

The smaller keyboard takes a little getting used to. The apostrophe is in a strange place and the right shift key is tiny. Other than that, it’s pretty damned cool.

I have it networked with our other computers and our main printer.

I don’t especially care for touchpads, so I bought a Logitech NX80 wireless notebook laser mouse that seems to work fine. I also bought a case for it so as to protect the gorgeous red finish.

It has an SD card reader, so I can shoot photos with my cameraphone, pop the card into the mini and import the photo. That’s what I did with the photo above.

Oh, and it has a built-in webcam.

Not a bad deal for $250.

Back in the stable

I rolled in to my garage at 1:58 p.m., some 6 hours and 56 minutes after I left the motel in Alexander City, Ala.

Of that time, 6 hours and 23 minutes were spent in motion as I hauled ass northwest toward home.

I have to credit the Garmin GPS with finding a short route that I probably would not have worked out if I’d been left to my own devices with a road atlas.

I saw parts of the South I would never have seen if I’d kept to the Interstate highway network. And I probably wouldn’t have experienced the acrophobic terror of that ridiculously high three- or four-level interchange in downtown Birmingham.

U.S 78 is a delight through northwest Alabama and northern Mississippi. It’s built to Interstate specs and is designated as the future I-22 corridor. Memphis was, well, Memphis, complete with a miles-long construction zone crawl along I-55 northbound.

I started my day with the free Comfort Inn breakfast bar, choosing strawberry yogurt, a bowl of oatmeal and coffee.

I had a very pleasant conversation with a retired ATF agent who used to ride a Kawasaki Concours. He tells me there’s as much backwoods moonshine making these days as there ever was. He also said he’d never touch the stuff after finding a dead squirrel in the mash at one still he raided.

I had another pleasant encounter at the Shell station at Winfield, Ala. when a BMW GS rider from Little Rock struck up a conversation. He said he’ll probably see me at the BMW MOA national rally this summer in Johnson City, Tenn.

The only really dicey part of today’s ride was the last leg from I-55 up U.S. 63 to Jonesboro. There was a very strong wind from the south, which I didn’t notice until the first time the road angled due west. I’ve ridden in much worse crosswinds, but I was glad then the Nestle Road exit showed up.

I’m writing this to kill time while Maria writes a column at the office and then we’re off to a movie.

Alexander City, Ala.

The sun was low on the horizon, I was more than halfway home and I’d been on the road nearly 9 hours, so I asked my Garmin GPS to start looking for motels while I gassed up at a Shell station at Jackson’s Gap, Ala.
It came up with a couple of possibilities about 15 miles ahead at Alexander City. I settled on the Holiday Inn Express, which turned out to be a Comfort Inn.
They let me park my bike out by the front door for security and they even had a luggage cart, making it possible to haul all of my stuff – saddlebags, waterproof duffle, tankbag, seatpack, helmet and jacket – to my room in one trip.
I’d only covered 436 miles, but they were slow miles, mostly off of the Interstate on U.S. highways winding north and west from Tifton, Ga., across the Georgia-Alabama line near Columbus, Ga. and up toward Birmingham.
My average speed while moving was only 58.8 mph, compared with 65 mph on Tuesday and 66.1 mph on Wednesday, as I slogged through small towns and medium-size cities. Naturally, I hit Columbus at evening rush hour.
So I dumped my stuff in my room and trudged across the parking lot to the Taco Bell next door. I wasn’t all that keen on Taco Bell – they have Pepsi products that I generally dislike – but I was too tired to consider going any further.
Back in the room, I cracked open the half pint of Jack Daniel’s that I’d bought in Florida, poured about two fingers of it into a small plastic motel cup and sipped it while watching crap on TV. Maria called about the time I was ready to shut off the lights and I assured her that I’d be home tomorrow well ahead of the advancing rain.
Fade to black.

Just shoot me

I observed this kid at the gas station/Subway/DQ where I stopped for lunch - just south of the Georgia-Florida line.
If I ever appear in public in a clown suit like this, please shoot me.

Ready to strike the tent

I think I've had my fill of Bike Week and the forecast for my route home suggests I should leave today.
So I'm packing and hitting the road ASAP.

Thank's

I've seen apostrophes misused in a lot of ways, but this is a new one for me.
It's the last thing you see leaving the Holiday Travel Park where the BMW riders are gathered.
That said, I think I'm getting a sunburn.

Bikes at Flagler

Pretty much a constant stream up and down A1A.