Many thoughts, little time
Let’s see if I can pound this out quickly. On Friday I got a game for the Wii that was obviously aimed towards Ali, Dancing with the Stars. We both played it for awhile. It sort of works like games like Guitar Hero and Dance Revolution where you need to do certain movements with proper timing in order to score well. It’s a pretty cool game.
I wrote myself a pretty long list on Friday night that included a lot of automobile related items. I needed to change the oil on the truck, rotate the tires on both vehicles as well as give them both a bath. But before doing all of that I decided to go with Ali to her gym to do another group power class.
Ali grabbed a few of these passes so I figured I would give it another go. Last time I went I was so exhausted I was a bit hesitant to go again since I am doing a 300 today with my gym buddy. Well I decided this time I would be less concerned with using the most weight in the class and just surviving the event intact. It went better. There were many times when I was out of sync with what the instructor was doing. It certainly is a good full body work out. People must love it as the class was jammed full. It was so full that when I felt the need to break wind I buried it since within a 10 foot radius there were at least 7 or 8 people, mostly women.
So after the class I was exhausted and felt like I could use a nap. However I resisted the urge and after lunch started on my projects while Ali worked inside cleaning. If you want to feel manly, work on your cars. Nothing makes the testosterone pump like getting under a vehicle and have oil running down your arms, grrrr. The truck oil change went fine and then it was on to tire rotation. I was almost looking forward to rotating the tires because it meant I could use my air wrench and compressor I got for Xmas. I turn the compressor on, hook up the air wrench to it, stick it on a lug nut and excitedly squeeze the trigger. Nothing, the lug nut doesn’t budge. The air wrench works but evidently the compressor I got is too underpowered to run it, 100 psi isn’t enough and with the small two gallon tank it rapidly loses pressure requiring annoyingly lengthy refill periods. Shit! I was pissed off at the idea that I would need to go out and buy a different compressor if I wanted to use my air tools. Well I was determined to at least use the gun for something so after I broke the nuts loose with a tire iron I used the gun to spin the nuts off the rest of the way.
The tire rotation on both vehicles went fine although after I started on the truck tires I kicked myself. I realized that when I got the new tires for it I paid extra to have free tire rotation included along with road hazard protection., oh well. The toughest part was getting the truck tires lined with the bolts since they are heavy and large. All I had left to do was wash both vehicles. I went the full nine yards and also vacuumed out the interiors, armor all the tires and wiped down the dash. Doing all this car maintenance took a looong time. I bet I was out there over three hours.
While I busted ass on the cars Ali was busting ass cleaning up inside. We were both tired afterward but we had a big night planned, another Demolition Derby! Yep Ali agreed to go even though I am sure she was less than thrilled. We half considered not going as I turned on the Packers game and saw it was snowing. I LOVE snow games. The only reason I knew the Packers were on was because when I was walking NIcki a few minutes earlier, I saw our neighbor across the street who is a Packers fan comes out, throw his hands over his head and yell as loud as he could. It was funny as hell. He must have been happy because I saw the score was 28-14 at half time. So anyway I had Tivo record it so I could watch the second half when we got home.
We got to the derby a few minutes before it’s official start of 7pm. We were surprised when we saw how long the line at the ticket counter was, at least 15 deep. We walked around and found a spot on the metal bleachers to sit. The crowd was definitely bigger than last time. We sat down just in time to hear the customary brutal rendition of the national anthem, people cheered anyway. They had the same announcer as last time and he annoys the hell out of Ali. He talks like a cb trucker, interjecting “come on…” into every other sentence he said. It drives Ali nuts.
The format was expanded this time. Not only did they have the demolition derby and atv racing, they added truck pulls and a “burn out” show. The new additions were funny. The burn out show was the funniest. Some guy in a normal looking Dodge pick up gets on to the concrete strip, locks the front brakes and then does a burn out. Woweeeeee. He had so much fun he turned around and did it again. Ali and I just laughed.
When I heard truck pulls I thought they meant the sort of pulls where a truck pulls a weighted sled for distance. No, this was basically a tug of war. The two trucks pointed different directions on the concrete strip connected by a chain. The guy says “go” and the object is to pull your opponent. Ali and I both said we were surprised that these guys with these big, nice, jacked up trucks would subject them to this sort of abuse. They obviously spent thousands extra to modify the truck, doing a pull like that could really do a number on a motor or transmission. Oh well it wasn’t my problem, we enjoyed the pulls. It seemed most of the match ups were Ford vs Chevy. Ford won every time, piss on Chevy.
Again people watching was a big part of the entertainment. Red necks were everywhere you looked. I saw a bunch of high school age kids wearing Chuck Liddel tight mohawk hair cuts, neato. Ali and I hung in for 2 hours of the show, that was plenty. We hopped back in the party van, which we brought to “fit in” better, and headed home. I think going to two derby’s in a row might have been a bit much. Checking out every 2nd or 3rd one would probably be better.
So after we got back I got to watch the rest of the football game. It was awesome. During the second half it almost looked like blizzard conditions. It is incredible that the Packers threw up 42 points on a night like that. I’m happy for Brett Farve. Of all the teams left in the playoffs I am pulling for the Packers.
Sunday was much more laid back than Saturday. I played a lot of WoW. Now that I know I can get this awesome gear by simply “grinding honor” is a negative for me. It sucks me into the game for longer periods than I normally spend anymore. It’s so silly.
I also spent a bunch of time working on my two older Roombas. In the span of a week both of them broke down. I ripped them down pretty far and in the process removed all sorts of hair, dirt and fuzz that finds it’s way into the interior of the robot. My surgery on one of them was a success it is back up and running. The other one still has a problem but I may be able to fix it. The kitchen counter was a dirty, hairy mess from my operations.
Sunday evening I got on the phone with Directv as my receiver was flaking out again. I have had an issue for quite awhile where the receiver simply stops working. Either I get a black screen or I get a 721 error on channels I should receive. I can normally fix it by unplugging the receiver but hey that is a pain in the ass. I don’t want to babysit the receiver to make sure it works. So I call customer service and explain to them this has been an ongoing problem that I called about before. I told them the last time I talked to a rep he said if it happens again they should send a tech out to our house so I relayed that info too. The woman on the other end said they would be happy to send a tech out to fix our problem. She just had to let us know it would cost $79 for the visit but she could cut us a break and only charge us $19.95 for the visit if we agreed to sign up for the maintenance program which costs an additional $6 a month. I did not receive either option warmly. I told the woman that I thought it was ridiculous that I need to pay extra if I expected my equipment to work. I compared it to the cable company. If my cable box dies they don’t charge me to fix it. I ranted and raved for a bit, even throwing out the line that I may just cancel my Directv if this is the way they treat long time customers, hoping I would get the woman to concede to a free service visit. No such luck, she wouldn’t cave and I hung up on her in the middle of her “is there anything else I can do for you” script. No I am not cancelling, I need my Eagles games but I did find a number of dirt cheap receivers on ebay that are the same model I have. I plan on snagging one of those and seeing if it makes a difference. I can do that for way less then the price of a service call. I don’t need these boobs to troubleshoot it anyway.
Awww the Cowboys lost again and Tony Romo blew it again. I love it. The Cowboys did something the Eagles could never do when they were the number one seed in the conference, lose their first playoff game. Tony is 0-fer the playoffs so far in his young career. Blame Jessica Simpson.