Return of the Miata, ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’, ‘Breaking the Waves’, Juniper Springs Wilderness fire
(posted from home)
(This post covers 13 - 19 March, 2009)
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Thursday, 19 March-
I paid for the Miata trans this morning. The bill wasn’t as bad as I expected. I ended up paying $750 but it was for installing not one but two transmissions (the first had worse problems than my original one) and also for re-routing and re-welding the exhaust and also fixing a miss in the engine. All in all, I’m happy. When I picked it up last time I thought I had made a terrible mistake in allowing my local garage guys to do this work. The trans was very noisy and I thought the guys would just say it’s not their problem the junk yard sent a bad transmission and that’s just the chance I take ordering a used transmission. But when I detailed the problems they offered to take the hit and took care of all the details and hassles, even washing the car before returning it.
Late in the day I began watching ’30 Rock’ episodes on Netflix instant movies and got caught up in them. I watched four or five episodes. I guess it’s another of those guilty-pleasure things but I like Liz Lemon, the Tina Fey character. Labashi looked in on me and must have wondered what the heck was going on. I had the lights off and was sitting in front of the laptop with my headphones on, LMAO.
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Wednesday, 18 March –
This morning I took the Miata to town, both to test out the new transmission before paying the bill and to get a look at some guns on sale at Gander Mountain. And with today’s beautiful weather I could go topless, er, I mean, top-down, in the Miata.
The guns were a disappointment in that one of the guns wasn’t available at all and the other wasn’t really a good deal. For the first, I really just wanted to see if I agreed with the reviews that it’s a little too heavy and that the fit and finish are surprisingly good for the bargain price. But it was not to be—none in stock. I really have to learn to call ahead.
I then drove across town to Rocky Ridge County Park for a walk. I had to alter my normal walking path somewhat because of logging of gypsy-moth damage but put in six miles of trail walking in a bit over two hours.
That evening I spent much of my time on YouTube watching FrenchPop videos. This is one of my guilty-pleasure things. Tonight it was mostly Mylene Farmer (“FTA” is a trip!), Natasha St. Pier, Lorie, Les Enfoires, and one or two by Patricia Kaas.
---------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 17 March –
I began working in the office today, mostly working on some health insurance stuff. I’m trying to track down whether my doctor made a mistake or I’m just unlucky in having to repeat an expensive diagnostic procedure.
Today was rainy so I spent the whole day in my office.
---------------------------------------------------
Monday, 16 March-
Holy frijoles, the news says the Juniper Springs Wilderness fire has now burned over 10,000 acres. It’s now 85% contained but what a shame! The canoe run down Juniper Springs is reportedly one of the top five in the country. Labashi and I loved it on our run on it in kayaks in 2006. Orat and I went to the launch on March 4th of this year and the Spring looked great and has a brand-new boardwalk approach. The news says firefighters are in some cases going by canoe to the fire so it’s apparently very close to the run. The area has lots and lots of saw palmetto and those plants recover quickly from a fire but one of Juniper Run’s greatest assets is that it runs through overhanging vegetation for more than half the run and if that’s gone, it won’t recover soon.
This afternoon I walked my six-mile loop and it felt great—I was still going strong up the hill at the end.
That evening we watched ‘Breaking the Waves’, a Lars Von Triers film following the ‘rules’ of the dogma-95 style of film-making (read ‘hand held camera, natural lighting, no props, no music track, etc).
We enjoyed it but it’s one of those films which requires a suspension of disbelief. In other words it’s just a little too far out. In this case, tragedy strikes a young married couple when the husband is injured at his job on an oil platform and is paralyzed. The husband preys upon his wife’s naivete and abiding love for him and forces her to seek out sex with other men and tell him about the encounters. She comes to believe her actions are curing her husband and we see the situation overwhelm her and tragedy building for her. Yet, in the end, we learn we aren’t as all-knowing as we think we are.
The main reason to see this film is Emily Watson’s acting. She’s absolutely fearless and amazing to watch. I recommend this one if you don’t have a problem with a few explicit nude scenes.
------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 15 March –
We spent the morning with Maypo and the birthday girl and took our good ol’ time driving home.
I picked up a Sunday Times at the obligatory Starbucks stop and had a nice, leisurely read when we got home. Then we watched ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ on DVD. If you are interested in lavish photography, it’s interesting to watch but the storyline is too simplistic. I see it only gets a 35% on RT (and only 29% on the Top Critics tomatometer) and that’s about right.
------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 14 March-
I was far behind on my blog updates so spent the day catching up and posting. In checking the news, I see the Juniper Springs Wilderness fire which interrupted my plans for a walk on that portion of the Florida Trail has spread from 1300 acres to 3500 acres and from only 10 per cent to only 13 per cent contained.
Late in the day we drove to Chambersburg for my sister-in-law’s birthday party. We had a wonderful evening at the Copper Kettle and I believe the party took her by surprise. And if that’s the case, great! She’s an incredible, caring, very competent nurse and mom (and now a grand-mom). She well deserves a party and I hope it made her happy.
After the party we stayed the night in Mocha Joe in the driveway rather than drive home late.
------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 13 March –
I spent much of the day going through the snail mail and catching up with the web news on sites I don’t follow very closely while traveling. I like to see what’s been happening on several gunnie web sites, typically ‘The High Road’ and the Pennsylvania Firearms Owner’s Association sites. The latter had some interesting legal cases going on wherein local and state police forces were making improper arrests of gun owners and seizing their handguns for ‘open carry’, i.e., for carrying a handgun in a holster while going about their day. Open carry is legal in Pennsylvania but some law enforcement organizations were apparently behind the times in their training. The legal cases as well as commendable efforts by members of PAFOA to educate law enforcement organizations (by providing briefing papers and by a writing campaign) appear to have made a difference.
The garage guy dropped off the Miata after it’s four-month-long odyssey to get a replacement transmission. I drove it only long enough to take him back to the garage but it’s definitely better than the other one. I’ll have to test it further when I get a chance.
That evening we watched the extras on the ‘Before Night Falls’ disk and then watched Bill Moyers’ Journal and ‘Now’.
*************** END OF POST **************
(posted from home)
(This post covers 13 - 19 March, 2009)
---------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 19 March-
I paid for the Miata trans this morning. The bill wasn’t as bad as I expected. I ended up paying $750 but it was for installing not one but two transmissions (the first had worse problems than my original one) and also for re-routing and re-welding the exhaust and also fixing a miss in the engine. All in all, I’m happy. When I picked it up last time I thought I had made a terrible mistake in allowing my local garage guys to do this work. The trans was very noisy and I thought the guys would just say it’s not their problem the junk yard sent a bad transmission and that’s just the chance I take ordering a used transmission. But when I detailed the problems they offered to take the hit and took care of all the details and hassles, even washing the car before returning it.
Late in the day I began watching ’30 Rock’ episodes on Netflix instant movies and got caught up in them. I watched four or five episodes. I guess it’s another of those guilty-pleasure things but I like Liz Lemon, the Tina Fey character. Labashi looked in on me and must have wondered what the heck was going on. I had the lights off and was sitting in front of the laptop with my headphones on, LMAO.
---------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 18 March –
This morning I took the Miata to town, both to test out the new transmission before paying the bill and to get a look at some guns on sale at Gander Mountain. And with today’s beautiful weather I could go topless, er, I mean, top-down, in the Miata.
The guns were a disappointment in that one of the guns wasn’t available at all and the other wasn’t really a good deal. For the first, I really just wanted to see if I agreed with the reviews that it’s a little too heavy and that the fit and finish are surprisingly good for the bargain price. But it was not to be—none in stock. I really have to learn to call ahead.
I then drove across town to Rocky Ridge County Park for a walk. I had to alter my normal walking path somewhat because of logging of gypsy-moth damage but put in six miles of trail walking in a bit over two hours.
That evening I spent much of my time on YouTube watching FrenchPop videos. This is one of my guilty-pleasure things. Tonight it was mostly Mylene Farmer (“FTA” is a trip!), Natasha St. Pier, Lorie, Les Enfoires, and one or two by Patricia Kaas.
---------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 17 March –
I began working in the office today, mostly working on some health insurance stuff. I’m trying to track down whether my doctor made a mistake or I’m just unlucky in having to repeat an expensive diagnostic procedure.
Today was rainy so I spent the whole day in my office.
---------------------------------------------------
Monday, 16 March-
Holy frijoles, the news says the Juniper Springs Wilderness fire has now burned over 10,000 acres. It’s now 85% contained but what a shame! The canoe run down Juniper Springs is reportedly one of the top five in the country. Labashi and I loved it on our run on it in kayaks in 2006. Orat and I went to the launch on March 4th of this year and the Spring looked great and has a brand-new boardwalk approach. The news says firefighters are in some cases going by canoe to the fire so it’s apparently very close to the run. The area has lots and lots of saw palmetto and those plants recover quickly from a fire but one of Juniper Run’s greatest assets is that it runs through overhanging vegetation for more than half the run and if that’s gone, it won’t recover soon.
This afternoon I walked my six-mile loop and it felt great—I was still going strong up the hill at the end.
That evening we watched ‘Breaking the Waves’, a Lars Von Triers film following the ‘rules’ of the dogma-95 style of film-making (read ‘hand held camera, natural lighting, no props, no music track, etc).
We enjoyed it but it’s one of those films which requires a suspension of disbelief. In other words it’s just a little too far out. In this case, tragedy strikes a young married couple when the husband is injured at his job on an oil platform and is paralyzed. The husband preys upon his wife’s naivete and abiding love for him and forces her to seek out sex with other men and tell him about the encounters. She comes to believe her actions are curing her husband and we see the situation overwhelm her and tragedy building for her. Yet, in the end, we learn we aren’t as all-knowing as we think we are.
The main reason to see this film is Emily Watson’s acting. She’s absolutely fearless and amazing to watch. I recommend this one if you don’t have a problem with a few explicit nude scenes.
------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 15 March –
We spent the morning with Maypo and the birthday girl and took our good ol’ time driving home.
I picked up a Sunday Times at the obligatory Starbucks stop and had a nice, leisurely read when we got home. Then we watched ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ on DVD. If you are interested in lavish photography, it’s interesting to watch but the storyline is too simplistic. I see it only gets a 35% on RT (and only 29% on the Top Critics tomatometer) and that’s about right.
------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 14 March-
I was far behind on my blog updates so spent the day catching up and posting. In checking the news, I see the Juniper Springs Wilderness fire which interrupted my plans for a walk on that portion of the Florida Trail has spread from 1300 acres to 3500 acres and from only 10 per cent to only 13 per cent contained.
Late in the day we drove to Chambersburg for my sister-in-law’s birthday party. We had a wonderful evening at the Copper Kettle and I believe the party took her by surprise. And if that’s the case, great! She’s an incredible, caring, very competent nurse and mom (and now a grand-mom). She well deserves a party and I hope it made her happy.
After the party we stayed the night in Mocha Joe in the driveway rather than drive home late.
------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 13 March –
I spent much of the day going through the snail mail and catching up with the web news on sites I don’t follow very closely while traveling. I like to see what’s been happening on several gunnie web sites, typically ‘The High Road’ and the Pennsylvania Firearms Owner’s Association sites. The latter had some interesting legal cases going on wherein local and state police forces were making improper arrests of gun owners and seizing their handguns for ‘open carry’, i.e., for carrying a handgun in a holster while going about their day. Open carry is legal in Pennsylvania but some law enforcement organizations were apparently behind the times in their training. The legal cases as well as commendable efforts by members of PAFOA to educate law enforcement organizations (by providing briefing papers and by a writing campaign) appear to have made a difference.
The garage guy dropped off the Miata after it’s four-month-long odyssey to get a replacement transmission. I drove it only long enough to take him back to the garage but it’s definitely better than the other one. I’ll have to test it further when I get a chance.
That evening we watched the extras on the ‘Before Night Falls’ disk and then watched Bill Moyers’ Journal and ‘Now’.
*************** END OF POST **************
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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