Hey folks,

It's been a little while! I have an extra hour or two to blow off while my car gets checked out.

I had to take it into the dealership this afternoon to see what was up with the "Check Engine" light. It came on a couple of weeks ago, so I need to see what is up with that. While it's in, I'm having them look at why my cruise control is not working and to take care of a couple of other minor things. The auxiliary outlet down on my console quit working on me a few months ago, so I'm having them look at that. That is probably just a blown fuse, but since they have it, I'll have them replace that. I also need a new clip put on the seat-belt. You know, the clip that holds up the clasp... It broke off a couple of years ago and I always forget about it every time I take my car in.

I've had some things I've needed to get done around the apt. and I finally accomplished some of these this afternoon. I organized the cupboards and cleaned up the kitchen - and I have some dishes to do. I'll probably do those later.

And I have papers I need to file away. I have a big stack that's needed filed for a couple of months now! ;)

Oh, and I wanted to find a reason to post this photo. I follow Cedar Point on Twitter and they had posted this a while back.



One of their webcams captured that! Pretty cool, huh...?

Anyhow, I think I'm gonna hop off here and file those papers and maybe even do some post-processing to some photos. I have a ton of pictures I need to get uploaded to my photo gallery. I have photos from storm chases from the past month or so that still need uploaded. I'll let you all know when I get those done. Hopefully, I can get to these today. If not this afternoon, I'll work on them later tonight... When I return from Ottis' grilling party.

He's having some people over at his place to grill. I put together some potatoes, onions and peppers in some tin-foil. Mmmm, sounds good just talking about it!

Later!

Driving back from Minneapolis (or Maplewood, to be precise) last week gave me a golden opportunity to shoot for a record in my car. I filled up the tank before leaving Maplewood and I very nearly made it entirely to Grand Forks without filling up again.

It was actually quite frustrating because Shaw and Lawson were riding me on not filling up and trying to make it on one tank. Lawson even went so far to pull out the manual to see how large my gas tank really was. I never really knew, but figured it was a 11 or 12 gallon tank. I've never put more than maybe 10.5 gallons in at one time. It is, officially a 13.25 gallon tank.

The record?

I have never put more than 275 miles on one tank and once that odometer turned over to 280, I really wanted to try for 300. I made it to Thompson and the needle was just emerging from under that last notch on the gas gauge and I had never driven with the gas light on for that long! I had to take the exit and fill up.

Which really made me upset. I filled up 11.938 gallons (which is a record in it's own right), which meant I had almost 2 gallons left in that tank! I definitely could have made it to Grand Forks on that...

Damnit! :)

Officially, I still set a milestone... 299 miles on one tank!

Hiya folks,

I'm a little depressed late this evening... On a couple of fronts...

First, I found out this morning that my car has a radiator that's better off in a trash can on Uranus and a serpentine belt that would be better worn on Calista Flockhart. In other words, I'm shelling out $500 tomorrow morning that was supposed to go towards new tires. So, Hilga won't be getting her wheels for another 3 months, now. Sorry, sweet lady - I wanted to have fresh treads for you this winter - for your sake... and mine!

Secondly, I totally lost track of my weekdays and didn't realize until 8:28 PM (CST) that "The Office" was on. Argh! I ran to the TV and caught the last two minutes of it. It's so great Pam is back! I missed her cute smile sitting at that front desk! ;)

So, when I get home from dropping my car off at the dealership tomorrow morning, you'll be damned sure I'll be on Hulu watching the entire episode to catch up.

Ahhh, do I love Hulu!

Oh, and by the way... The two things I do feel good about today, well, check out my post above...

Sorry to interrupt your lovely evening, or lunch hour, whichever... But I have got a little story (advice, maybe) to share...

Last week, I ended up having to take the car in for a minor repair.

Apparently, the ECM (Engine Control Module) had gone bad and was hard-coding some sort of code to the transmission control disengaging the overdrive gear. Which resulted in my car acting very strangely while I was on the Interstate. Twice, it happened, while I was driving back to North Dakota from my vacation back in Indiana and something very similar had occurred about 2-3 weeks prior to that. It would unlock the overdrive, making my car lurch and making the RPM in my car spike! That couldn't have been good when I was driving at 70-75 mph! As soon as it would occur, however, it would lock back in and ride fine.

Probably a longer story than you cared for, but anyway, the dealership diagnosed the problem to the ECM and replaced it last week for only a small diagnostic fee (it turned out to be only $50). The part and installation were, luckily, covered by a warranty that expires after 80,000 miles. So, good thing the car is only sitting around 74,000 miles... That saved me almost $600!

Anyhow, the reason I write about all this... My car is performing the best it has since the day I bought it! The car idles very low and is very quiet, and for the first time ever, it starts at the turn of the key! It's almost always taken two turns for it to start completely. I always thought it was just the make, as most people I have talked to over the years that have Nissan's, say their cars have pretty much performed in a similar fashion.

So, even if it's not supposed to have, the new ECM seems to have revived my car, in a lot of ways...

So, if you find your car under 80,000 miles and you want a relatively easy and affordable way to "tune" up your car some, have the ECM inspected and if needed, have it replaced.

Now, back to some Sunday night football... Go Eagles!

It sure does... After having difficulties getting the car started twice over the past week and a half I decided (finally!) to get a battery replacement for the car. This, the first time I've replaced it in the 5.5 years I've owned the car. We can blame the insane coldness we've experienced here lately on the fact it wouldn't start. The ambient temperatures have been cold enough themselves (see the weatherBlog for details!) but the winds have been the main culprit. We've experienced the -20's here over the past month on several occasions and the car has started up, albeit slowly, but it hasn't had that much trouble. It's when the winds result in -40 to -50 wind-chills that I've found the car had problems.

Anyhow, so I went to get a new battery the other day and today, it's in the low to mid 30's out there and what's that I see? Melting snow? Ahhh... It's a great sight, let me tell you. I was out doing some running around yesterday and it didn't feel all that bad. Today is even better. I cracked open the windows here in the apartment for the first time since November of 2007. It's really nice to have some fresh air circulating around in here. It gets pretty stagnant and stuffy in here after 2-3 months, quite honestly.

So, while I'm not necessarily asking for it, I'd like to see at least, a few more -10 to -20 ambient temperatures around here to see how the car handles with the new 540 cold-cranking amps... ;)

Also, wish us good luck tonight in our volleyball game. We're in week 4 now and into the stretch for our tournament. We didn't win a single game in the first 3 weeks, so we are now in the "Silver" division. It's frustrating, especially since the last two weeks I've actually been trying to play better. We were over-matched during week two, but the others, we probably should have won. A few bad bounces here and there and we may have been able to sway the momentum. Hopefully, tonight we can play better and pull out a win. I guess it's all in good fun, but it would be much nicer if we could just get a digit in that win column - other than a zero, that is.

All the while milestones are being sought over in Major League Baseball, I achieved my own yesterday. The "silver bullet's" odometer ticked over the 60K mark yesterday afternoon. So, I have officially hit the 60,000 mile mark on my car in the 5 years I've had her. Not bad, after all the traveling I've done over the years that I've managed to only average 12,000 miles a year on her.

She needs some body work, as you may know, if you've been reading over the past couple of days. The total estimate on the body work on the front-end and the muffler replacement came to roughly $1,000, as I expected. I am feeling much better now about the situation and have come to terms that from now on, I'm going to simply avoid road construction at all costs at night while I am driving. History shows that I have not dealt with it well at all. This is the second time I've driven my car off "something" because of the neglect of signage around construction zones at night. I'll stick to familiar routes, where I feel safe. ;)

Ta-ta, for now!

Late December, back in '63... Oh, wait, that's Billy Joel...

Oh, was it a night in Grand Forks tonight for your's truly. After all the wonderful things that have transpired over the last several days of vacation, travel, and spending time with one of my best friends - the wonderfulness and good fortune had to end some time. I was waiting for it, but didn't quite expect it to hit this hard or this soon!

Lu and I got together this evening (Tuesday evening) and went through all of our photos and expenses and split everything up. Everything started out so innocent... Then Lu asked if I could drive her to Wal-Mart to get some cough medicine - as apparently I had given her some of the what I have been battling this past weekend. We were driving nonchalantly down Columbia when we came upon the construction zone near 24th Street. There was a small sign that had an arrow pointed towards the right, so I progressed to the right lane and no sooner I did that, I looked up and saw the pavement end. Yes, the pavement ended - as in there wasn't anything there. I slammed on my brakes but the loose gravel and dirt didn't allow me to stop and the car slid over the edge of the pavement and went straight to the bottom of a 3 to 4 foot gouge, where the road had once been. They had barrels up, yes, marking the construction, but honest to god, they had these things lined up like it was a lane - as in where you would drive around the construction. Apparently, the city DOT guys have no clue how to put up a "Road Closed" or "Road Ends" sign, because there wasn't one there. I have the pictures on my phone to confirm it...

So, I call the police to report the accident, a cop shows up, we have a brief laugh and he looks at the situation and says, "I'm surprised this is the only one we've had tonight... this is very poorly signed." Honest to god, that's exactly what he said. As we (Lu, me, and the police officer) stood there assessing things and waiting for the tow truck, we had several other cars swerving over into the other lane because they had figured out they were in the wrong lane. It was that horrible.

So, anyhow, now I have a damaged car... A dented and detached muffler and some bashed in materials on the underside of the front of my car. I don't think there's any major damage, but it's dark out there and I can't really make out a whole lot. I'll have to wait until morning to go out and look everything over.

This isn't happening at a very opportune time for me, either. I have traveling plans in three weeks to return home to Indiana and now, I have no idea if I'll have the fundage or, perhaps, the transportation to do so. Obviously, I'll need to call my insurance carrier first thing in the morning and, I guess, the Nissan Dealership to get an estimate on the repairs and to check on my air-bags. They didn't deploy, but I'm nervous that the impact may have jarred something. The one advantage is that I have the day off work tomorrow, so I'll have the time to get things done. The disadvantage, money, of course. Interstate Tire charged me $200 tonight for wenching my car out of that mess and I'm only assuming that I'll have another $1,000 in repairs to pay for on the car. This, at a time, when I'm already pinching from my vacation last weekend.

Someone, please tell me a joke. Fart in my face. Or do something to make me laugh. I'm really in the dumps right now...

I'm up at 5:30am again... I was extremely tired after getting home from work yesterday afternoon, so I ended up taking a nap. After the nap, what else did I do? Well, went to bed, of course. What else? So, I suppose my getting up early this morning is justified, to some extent - much the opposite from yesterday.

I've been pulling the day shift at work (8:00am - 4:00pm) which is good in a couple of ways. I've had some things I've wanted to get done around here, plus I have errands I need to complete. I missed my appointment for my car last Thursday, so I still need to get it in for maintenance. Yes, I'm still having issues with the cruise control.

I've also been checking around for prices on enlargements for the lightning photos I shot during the evening of the 7th. I'd really like to get an enlargement or two to hang on my walls here. I have some interest at work to get some enlargements made to hang up there, as well. If you can believe it, we're a private weather forecasting company, yet we have not one weather picture hanging up in that office - anywhere! So, maybe I can start a trend here - and start getting some photos up on those walls. We have plenty of people in that office, especially among us forecasters, that chase and take photos. So, I'm sure we could all contribute.

Anyhow, it's been a little cool around these parts and especially rainy this morning. This upper-level cut-off low is still spinning around the Great Lakes and extending this shield of rain/showers over the eastern part of the state. It should taper off this afternoon, but it will likely keep things a little dreary through a good part of the day. It will, at least, be a good day to be inside at work. I'd rather have it that way, than have a beautiful 80° day and have to work.

I'm looking forward to this next week. A friend of mine will have her week-long vacation and I'm hoping we'll be able to get together and hang out. I managed to meet this woman a couple of months ago and have been e-mailing her back and forth for a while now. She's a little paranoid when it comes to sharing phone numbers and everything, which I can respect and can understand... But, it has been over 2 months now! Hopefully, we'll be able to find a time and finally meet each other.

I haven't talked to Amanda in a while... I should call her to see how she's been and what she's been up to. You know, I'll be honest here -- I understand that some women think that it's the "right" thing for the man to make the first move in a relationship... and to be the one responsible for "calling back..." In very nearly every relationship I've ever been in, that's been mostly true. But for you women (if there are any that actually read this) I'll let you in on one little secret. Us guys like it, too, when you call us! We like to feel wanted too, from time to time. I can recall a relationship while I was a Sr. in high school where this woman, in particular, would call me (out of the blue) and ask me if I wanted to come over, go on a walk, or simply to go out for ice cream... Don't get me wrong, I would call her plenty - but I'll just say, I enjoyed that. It's sad that it doesn't happen anymore - and especially sad that it hasn't in over 4 years.

Anyhow... Any more of this and I'll be forced on anti-depressants for the rest of my life. What I need is to be around my real friends... and I wish I could be. I'm getting very anxious for my trip home in August. I miss Brian and Amy. I miss Justin. And I miss my family. I can't wait to see Brian and Amy's little girl. They sent me a picture the other day of little Zoey... She's getting big and she's staying healthy! Check out this little cutie:


More later...

I noticed while I was driving home from work about an hour ago that the odometer in my car read 50,127 miles! Apparently, my car turned over the 50,000 mile mark two or three days ago and I never realized it. I can't believe I have 50,000 miles on this thing already. I suppose, however, since my baby is now coming up on her 4-yr anniversary, 50,000 miles isn't so bad. That works out be around 12,500 miles a year. Which is actually below the "average" number of miles per year a vehicle racks up. Of course, I suppose this average can be argued. Especially now that many people are cutting back on vehicular travel due to high gas prices. Over the past couple of years, I'm sure the average has dropped significantly from the typically accepted 14,000 - 15,000 Mi/yr.

Now, I just need new tires and an expensive electronic overhaul. The cruise control started malfunctioning a couple of weeks ago, but I've been unable to get it into the the dealership for an estimate. Maybe within the next couple of days...

More later -

So, I realize it's been like forever since I've updated this thing... Sincerely apologize, by the way!

Anyhow, not much new up this way. Work has really slowed down lately. Our contracts with Alberta and Iowa ended about mid-April and our responsibilities shifted only to the Northern Indiana districts about the same time. The contract with Indiana ended at the end of April as did Wisconsin. So, we're pretty much into our quiet season at Meridian. My schedule is fairly reflective on that. I only work two seperate shifts the whole month (8:00pm to 4:00am and 8:00am to 4:00pm shifts) and work 4 days of office shifts. So, at least there's some consistency with this month's schedule.

I've really been under a serious crunch financially. After a few unexpected expenses over the past couple of weeks, I'm literally broke. Even though I got my raise a couple weeks ago, it really hasn't helped much in the short-term. Hopefully, it'll start to make more of a difference in a couple of months, when (hopefully) I can get back on my feet. In the meantime, I've been trying to cut back on a few things. Amanda and I are still seeing each other off and on and even though it makes me sounds like a cheap-ass, I'm trying not to just go out everytime, when we do see each other. I've been trying to find ways to spend time together without having to spend money. I had her over the other night and I cooked dinner for her and stayed in to watch a movie. So, see... We can find things to do that don't cost money! Plus, it was something a little different for me. It was (if you can believe it) the first time I've ever cooked dinner for a woman! Neither of us keeled over, so I guess the food turned out alright. The grilled chicken could have been better had I started the rest of the food sooner!

The trip down to Aberdeen for the Convective Workshop went great! The presentations were top-notch and were very interesting. I was very impressed with it. Even though a majority of the folks that were there were NWS employees, I still had a great time. It seemed like they accepted me as an employee of the private sector, so it wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. There were a lot of nice and intelligent people there. I learned quite a bit from the presentations and I honestly feel I left having taken something away from it. The only part of the whole experience I could have done without was who I went with. The guy is a co-worker and I get along with the guy for the most part, but I'll be brutally honest (can't help it), he was simply embarrassing to be around. I don't know what it is, but he has some serious beef with the NWS and he deliberately criticized the NWS and many of it's practices - AND openly. He criticized the Grand Forks office on numerous occasions when it was clear that the Grand Forks employees were standing very nearby. It was embarrassing and it made me feel very uncomfortable. I don't know if he actually realizes that what he says sometimes can be very offensive or not, but frankly, it is. So, yes, if you haven't taken anything from my rant here, I am implying my attendence next year will not be with him. Which, by the way, I learned that the Grand Forks WFO will be sponsering next year!

Thursday, April 20th, I also attended the basic and advanced Skywarn training here in Grand Forks. Adam Lowe (a co-worker of mine) and I went down to it. Even though we're both rather extensively trained in the science of meteorology, it was still nice to be at a training session up here. I'm not sure, but it may have been the first session that Adam had been through. This will make the 8th or 9th time I've been through Skywarn training and the 2nd time I've been through the advanced session. I met a couple of the Hams at the session and also met the vice-president of the ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services) network up here. He had invited to their monthly meeting, but I couldn't make it because of work. I haven't looked close enough at the work schedule, but hopefully I don't work the last Tuesday of this month... They hold their monthly meetings then. I've never been a part of ARES, so I'm a little green on how it runs and all. It would be interesting, however, to sit down and meet everyone and see what it's all about.

Since then, not much more excitement to speak of. The cruise control on my car has been malfunctioning over the past couple of weeks... and I should probably have it looked at. Which I would, if I could afford it - or if I had the time. With me working these 8pm - 4am shifts, I haven't been getting up until 3 or 4pm and by the time I get around and get my shower and everything, the dealership is closed. One of these days, I need to get my ass up and drive it over there.

Anyhow, speaking of which... I still need to get my shower and it's getting to be about that time. Hopefully, everyone has been doing okay and hopefully you're not mad that I haven't been updating this more often. I apologize. In the future, I'll try to get in here and write more.

More later...

In the meantime, though, for you guys out there... You better be voting for your Hometown Hotties for Maxim. Their annual contest has been going on now for 10 weeks!

C'mon, you have to support these hotties: http://www.maximonline.com/hotties/

Personally, I think it's a toss up between the two "Christina's." Christina (Dallas, TX) from Week #1 and Christina (Orlando, FL) from Week #8. You're votes will decide!

Edit: 19 May 2006 @ 1:35pm CDT

I'm so freakin' tired, I really don't feel like writing in here tonight, but since it's been a while, I suppose I should. The past several days, I've been pulling the 7am to 3pm shift and even though I love getting off of work at 3:00pm, I hate getting up so early. You know me, I'm always up late, and this week hasn't been any different... So, as a result, yes, I've only managed 4-5 hours of sleep each night. I have Monday and Tuesday off, so I'm planning on getting caught up on some sleep.

Over the course of the past week, we've gradually been losing our snow-cover. Our temperatures have been remaining above freezing for the most part (especially over the past several days) and it's been raining as well, so that's helped. The negative is that with the rapid snow-melt and the fresh rainfall, the Red River is now threatening to flood. The Grand Forks forecast office upgraded our flood watch to a warning and is forecasting the river to crest at 47 feet. If that occurs, that'll make it the 6th highest it's ever been. The cool thing about this, is that if this indeed occurs, they'll have to place a new watermark on the monument down by the river.

Had some frustrating times yesterday... We've got apartment complexes going up in front of the building we're housed at work and as I was leaving work yesterday, I managed to snag a big ass screw in my right-front tire. I thought I had heard something "pop" but it didn't register, initially. About a half-mile down 42nd street I noticed my car was severely pulling to the right. After pulling over in the Valley Dairy (gas-station) I quickly found the tire completely flat! What a pain in the ass... So, I had to jack up the car, throw on my spare, and drive over to the Firestone. Since I had driven on the tire, they couldn't just patch the tire up, so I ended up having to purchase a new tire. Another $100 down the pooper... This car has been nothing but bad luck over the past year for me. First, I manage to drive the damn thing 30 feet into a mud-filled ravine last spring. Second, I end up having to replace a windshield after finding it cracked last summer. Third, the thing is broken into inside my garage a few months ago, and now... this! I suppose, these are all just that: bad luck. I couldn't have done anything to control any of these occurrences. They just manage to happen to me.

The one good thing to come out of all this: things seem to work out in the end. And thus far, I suppose I can't complain. Nothing major has happened to this car... and I guess I should feel lucky for the fact. I don't know what I'd do without my car. It's my baby...

Oh, and speaking of "babies..." I learned that Brian and Amy's little girl, Zoey, will be coming home from the hospital very soon. That's wonderful news... She was born about 2 months premature and even though she was as tiny as tiny can be, she's pulled through. I'm anxious to get home in August to see her.

Anyhow, I have some other things on my mind... maybe I'll share more later, when I'm a little more rested up. I'm off to take a nap!

Take care!

I'm not sure exactly what the opposite of "weekend delight" would be, but this past weekend would be it... The first half of the weekend, wasn't all that bad, but Sunday was another story. Saturday night, Amanda and I went out again... We went to dinner at Appleby's then came back to my place to watch a movie. She decided on "Gone in 60 Seconds" so we watched it, hung out, and talked quite a bit. I got brave and decided to show her some pictures of my friends and family. ;) And I got to see a picture of Anna and Noel, her two daughters. They're cute kids...

Sunday was your typical "sunday..." I pretty much laid around all day, watching TV, watched a couple movies, and made some phone calls to the family. I, seemingly, dozed off and on all day, too.

Monday morning, upon entering my garage, and subsquently, my car, I quickly found out that someone had apparently entered my car and went through my stuff. I found stolen, the hand-held mic for my mobile amateur radio and my cell phone battery charger. After looking around briefly, and yelling several thousand curse words, I had to drive on to work. I was so upset... and pissed... but couldn't really let it sink in, with my having to work that morning. What pissed me off the most was that I even had my garage locked and something like this happened! That's a part of having a garage, right? Better security for your automobile and it's contents? I had the god-damn thing locked! How could something like this happen??

Well, to explain things... Within the garage units at this apt. complex I live in, all that separates each individual unit is a piece of sheet metal and it doesn't reach all the way to the roof. You can easily enter any unlocked garage unit and climb up and over into a unit next-door. It was clearly evident that this is what had happened, in my case. I had pretty distinct proof. I had footprints on top of my car! I knew that's how they got in and got back out. I also found that the sunroof/moonroof on my car had been slightly damaged, because of the fact. It had sunken down, so it wasn't level with the roof of my car. It wasn't really bad, but it still made me concerned... I took the car to a body shop here in town Monday after work and they found that the set-screws on both sides weren't completely tightened. The dude at the body shop was able to move the window into place and tighten the screws up. So, that was an easy fix and he didn't charge me anything. So, that was the one positive thing to come out of my Monday.

I also filed a police report and reported what had happened to the office here at the complex. Maintenance guys looked at my garage unit yesterday morning and made some measurements to put up some boards on both sides of my unit to prevent someone from climbing up and over. When I returned from work today, they had it done. It looks good and I'm actually impressed how well they covered everything. If I think about it, I'll take some pictures of what it looks like later, or maybe tomorrow afternoon. If I do, I'll post it so everyone can clearly see that you can not enter my garage anymore... At least, without some good effort!

So, even though I was very upset at my discovery Monday morning, things have worked out thus far. I'm "fairly" confident it won't happen anymore. I'm locking my car now when I park in the garage and with those boards up, I think I'll be okay. I'll just need to buy a new hand-held mic for the radio (they run almost $90, but I've found a few places selling them for around $65-70) and a charger for my phone. Those are only about $25-30, so I'm not too worried about that.

I also got brave last night and went ahead and ordered the camera I've long wanted... I put the Canon Digital Rebel XT on the credit card last night. I've got money from Christmas that will go for paying off the credit. Whatever I get back from my taxes this year will go towards the rest of the it. I found out the rebate for the camera expired on the 15th, so I won't be able to get the $75 off, but I will be able to send a mail-in rebate for the SanDisk Ultra II memory card I purchased through Amazon. With the rebate, I'll receive $20 back. So, not bad... The card sells at most places at $100-110 and with the rebate through Amazon, I'll be getting it for around $75.00! So, yeah, not a bad deal. The rebate for that expires on the 30th, so I felt that I'd go ahead and get it ordered now. After that, I finally decided to just go for it... I took the plunge... and just ordered the camera as well.

It should be on its way next week, and I'm hoping to have it sometime during the first or second week of February. I could have had it much earlier than that, but having it shipped slower, I was able to get free shipping on both the camera and the memory card. If it's going to save me money, I can wait!

Anyhow, I've got dinner waiting on me!
Take care... and I hope everyone is doing well...