These people sitting on the sidewalk should be ashamed! ‘Nuff said.

I had this idea to post entries about dreams I have. But I wonder how exciting a dream is since we sleep through them!
Anyway the other night I dreamed my wife and I were driving somewhere when we had some kind of wheel problem with the car. And, of course we’re in the middle of nowhere. So, I call for a tow truck. I told my wife I had $300 on me so we should be okay.
Well, the wrecker picks us and takes us to a garage. Then he says it will be $1200! I open my checkbook adn see that I have a balance of only $56! But the woman at the garage said she could take some money off the bill if we would give her and her dog a ride to the next town to see the vet.
Then I woke up.
And now I’m afraid to drive out of town.

Took in a movie over the weekend – no, not Star Trek. I’m going to wait a bit on this one. I didn’t want to contribute to the opening weekend box office numbers and I really don’t like crowded movies.

I went to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine

3 word review – I liked it.
It starts out (as does the excellent Wolverine Origins comics) in the mid-1800’s and proceeds from there.
If you’re a fan of the Wolverine character I would recommend it. I rather imagine I will obtain a copy when it comes out.
Wolverine at Wikipedia
As for Star Trek – it will be here a while so I will probably wait a week or so.

No, I’m not going to get political. But with all the GM/FORD/DODGE issues in the news it makes me wonder what I would do if I ever bought a new car (which is highly unlikely). With recent events it does make me think twice about spending several thousand dollars on a Detroit product instead of a foreign vehicle.
But for me there is another consideration. We live 175 miles from a city that has a foreign car dealer.
Recently a friend of mine bought a new Subaru. The other day he said he was driving it to The City for some service work. I immediately started wondering how he would get his car to an authorized dealer for repair if one day it just stopped running.
There are a couple of mechanics here, but they are not authorized for all foreign vehicle service.
So, it seems that the best choice is something built by one of the Big Three even if they’re having difficulties right now. Either that or hope nothing serious happens to your foreign car until the warranty has expired. Then develop a good relationship with a local mechanic.

By the way – these stitches in my back ITCH!!!

Over the past few weeks I have been experiencing some soreness on the outside of my left ear making it uncomfortable to sleep on that side. I finally decided to have a dermatologist take a look at it. When I went to see him it was the first time he had seen me as a patient so he gave me the once over.
In regard to the ear he said it was a case of Chondrodermatitis Nodularis Helicis. He said the solution was to take pressure off the ear at night using a special pillow.
Good news – I found a place online that sells the pillows.
Bad news – $60 each!
Then the doctor said he doesn’t like the looks of a mole on my back. So out come the syringes, scalpels and scissors. Jab, jab, snip, cut and then stitch me up.

Don’t you just hate it when old guys start going on and on about their ailments?
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Now a fun project that my oldest son and I tackled this afternoon. For my birthday the kids chipped in and bought me a new car stereo and a car accessory pack for my Zune. The pack included wiring to connect to the car’s power to automatically charge the Zune while plugged in along with a single connecting cable to feed the audio into the stereo.

First we had to pull the factory stereo:

While we were hooking up all the wiring we hardwired the Zune accessories to the power and ran all the connecting cables behind the console for a cleaner installation leaving only the end of one cable exposed to hook up the Zune.
Then we slipped the new stereo in and replaced the console. It’s a JVC KD R-200:

Overall I am really pleased with the result. And the stereo sounds good. I especially like the way the Zune plays through it. Previously I had been using a cassette adapter and a patch cord, but the direct cable connection gives a much cleaner sound since it bypasses the Zune’s volume control; it’s a direct line out. And when I shut off the car, the Zune automatically pauses its playback.