These guys were hanging on real, live, honest-to-gosh plants in my Dad's small garden (he decided to try out the "hay bale garden" thing this year) just two minutes before this picture was snapped. Two bell peppers, two yellow squash and two cucumbers. He also has about a bushel of tomatoes waiting to turn red. Watermelons are starting to get plump and juicy and cantaloupes are starting to make an appearance as well.

We're formulating plans for a small greenhouse thing so we can keep them going as long as possible and start as early as possible next year which makes me quite happy. We always had a huge garden each year as I grew up and even though I hated the work on it at the time, you look back now and realize all the good it did for you (health and work ethic as well) as you grew up.

I'll get some pics of the whole thing tomorrow after the 4th festivities, and you'll be amazed at what a few bales of hay will produce for you.

If you are interested (this works very well for you city dweller types out there) here's a great article from our electric co-op magazine on how to do your own garden in just a few square feet.

For now, but some days you take what you can get away with.

Updates:
1) Dad is zooming along like nothing happened. Left the hospital around lunch Friday. Friday afternoon he was out watering the garden and doing normal stuff. By Monday, he had seen his normal doctors, made appointments for the ones he missed while being in the hospital and in general thumbing his nose at the universe in general by driving around town running errands. I just hope when it;s my time to deal with this stuff I am half as tough and ornery.

2) Dog looks like he's smuggling stuff in his cheeks, but otherwise running around also thumbing his nose (or whatever dogs use on their nose to show disdain) at the universe. The vet says he'll be fine, but we need to keep an eye on his bite areas to make sure the tissue doesn't turn necrotic from the venom. Copperheads generally don't hit you with a lot of venom unless they intend to eat you, so the bites were possibly warning/threat bites instead of venom injecting bites (there is still venom, just not as much)so he may have gotten lucky. He's a smart little guy, so at least he'll learn from this and not be so gung-ho next time.

3) Other nonsense too mundane or numerous to list here has subsided for now.

Recovery commences, until next time.

This time it takes a shot at my virtual reality.

The background. I like some television shows that fall into the completely fiction category. I view them to be a hot tub for my brain, something I can dip into, get warm, relax, not worry about those pesky laws of physics, rules, the fact that certain characters are too good to be true. It's a brain vacation without all the TSA hassles. One such show has become a recent favorite, "Bones". The show has a quirky, eclectic bunch of people that mix just the right way to make it believable (I've been fortunate enough to be in that atmosphere a time or two to know how great it can be) and fun to watch. I have been DVR'ing episodes over the past couple of weeks and started watching again the other night. Happily, the recent episodes have been showing up in order as the show got started which gave me a good bit of background and answered a few questions about shows that I had seen that came later in the series.

Last night I was happily watching along and they completely destroyed a good chunk of my fictious-character-crush on the character of Angela Montenegro (played by Michaela Conlin ). They completely knee-capped my totally one sided mind-affair with her completely fictional character, and that pisses me off. Completely.

See, I knew from watching later episodes that her character ended up almost marrying (wedding was scuttled at the last second due to complications from her free-spirited artist life) the character of Hodgens. I never really saw the connection between the two characters since he is a giant conspiracy nut, anti-government crackpot, bug and slime geek and she is the sensitive, touchy-feely, artist type with the free-wheeling, wild side that tends to go on impulse and is fiercely independent. (Hodgens also rails against the rich, powerful, elite while pretending to be an unassuming lab-guy all day, then returning home to the rich, powerful, elite lifestyle he proclaims to hate so much, making him at best a hypocrite and at worst an insufferable jerk and a hypocrite)

Okay, opposites must be attracting, seen it before, nothing to see here, move along.

Then during the episode last night, it is revealed to the group that Hodgens character is the child of the multi-billionaire family that pretty much controls the Jeffersonian Museum where they all work, and his house (that none of them had ever seen) is really a palatial estate with a twelve car garage, tennis courts and a lake. The reaction of the Angela character was unmistakable at hearing this. Once the news was confirmed, her estimation of Hodgens went up quite considerably.

In the story line, she had previously regarded him as interesting, but mildly annoying and had paid no more attention to him than any other male character on the show. Following the story arc from here to the future points I have already seen, her interest in him clearly starts at the point she finds out he's rich. Everything they have let me know about her character should point the opposite way, but there it is. "How many cars are in that garage? The lake and tennis courts obstruct the view of the main house from the guest house you are staying in?"

Bite me.

Yes, I know it happens every day in real life, I know these are fictional characters being blasted into my eyes with beams of electrons plastered on a screen, I know that I shouldn't care and it's part of a story.

Bite me again.

It's my fantasy world for an hour at a time, at least let me give my self a happy case of brain rot if I want to. It's bad enough to deal with crap in the real world without it being foisted on me in my escape from that world.

In the end I don't think that the character of Angela is meant to be any kind of a gold-digger by any stretch. The characters on the show are well made and fun to watch IMHO, and the pairing of Hodgens and Angela make for some comedic/interesting moments later on in the timeline, well worth the effort in getting them together.

But.

Why couldn't it have been something different? Some other way to spark her interest other than material wealth? Why do that to her character? You took a strong female character, someone with brains, wit, charm, beauty, independence, personality and backbone and turned her into something much less.

Maybe I'm just not getting it. There have been lots of things I just didn't get in life. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive for some reason. Maybe it's just another stupid TV show I should just leave behind. Maybe a few more episodes will answer some questions. Maybe I should have just done a lot of drugs in high school. Who knows.

One of the longest weeks evar just keeps trying to go one more. We haven't hit eleven yet, but jeez, it can't be far off.

Sister and BIL are having issues that I can't/won't go into at this point, but he's getting a raw deal from some people and it's really wearing on him. He's a good guy, and we're all here to help, but there's just not much we can do but wait for things to play out. To top it off, he feels bad that he was making people worry while my Dad was having his issues. Like I said he's a good guy...

Chewbacca the Jack Russel found a copperhead next to my Dad's shop yesterday evening. Like most dogs, he growled, barked, grabbed it and shook it to death. Unfortunately, Chewbacca is not an agile young pup anymore and got a bite on the lip for his troubles. It took about an hour, but he started swelling up and my parents and sister realized he must've been bitten somewhere, took him to the vets office. They gave him some antibiotics, pain medicine and pumped a bunch of fluids into him and watched him overnight. They pretty much said that as long as his breathing and blood pressure stayed regular, he would be fine. Most dogs do fight off copperhead venom easily enough (one of the less worrisome biters), but he's about 13 years old now, a small breed anyway and it was a relatively big snake (plus the bite being on his face didn't help) so he was taking it harder than most. He's fine as of this morning, but will probably avoid the serpent fighting in the future. He's smart like that.

I think I'm going to go sit under the anvil tree for a while. Maybe throw rocks at the hornets nests while I wait for the wind to shake the limbs.

Got a call from my sister about 3:30, Dad was out of the OR and sleeping off the anesthesia in his room. Doctor said there were a couple of spots they couldn't do anything about (too small to reach, but weren't completely blocked) and they put in a couple of stents in places the arteries had closed up. Bypasses only last about 10 years on average and the arteries they put in can close up or collapse in that time. He's been running on his bypasses for over 15 years now, so he got his money's worth I guess. They placed a couple of stents in the places they could, and he'll be on Plavix for a while to guard against clots, then back to his normal batch of meds. As it stands now, he is exactly where he was before Tuesday as far as heart function, and shouldn't be really any different when he gets home.

He should be back home Friday.

That's a *happydance* all around.

Just got off the phone with Dad and things are looking better than any of them first thought. The crippling kidney malfunction they claimed he had? Oh, sorry about that, you were just dehydrated. The blood thinner that he was going to have to be weaned off for days before surgery? Oh, yeah, sorry about that, it works faster than we thought, you'll be good by tomorrow.

So far it sounds like the doctors are still fishing for a reason for the episode (which nobody is taking lightly, it was as bad than I am capable of describing), and they are going to do the catheter thing tomorrow unless something changes that. They are now saying maybe a stent or balloon/roto-rooter thing and he will probably be home by Saturday.

I love the fact that my Dad takes an extreme, almost perverse, pleasure in showing doctors how wrong they can actually be. Seriously, the two docs in the cardiac wing were in shock when Dad jumped out of the bed they wheeled into his room, walked over with all his tubes and wires dangling and hopped into the new bed in the new room. All this while cracking jokes with the two nurses that were "assisting" him. They really have this image of older people, especially with cardiac issues, as helpless invalids that they must "save". If doctors would stop treating us as if we were fragile snowflakes that can't endure life without them, we'd all be much better off.

Piss off life. I got no time to screw with you, and you don't want me to make time.

Got another one of those calls this morning. Thankfully, it wasn't as final as the last one. I had the great fortune of being right by the phone when my Dad called to say he was having trouble breathing and needed help. With his history of heart problems this was not something I took lightly. When I got there (it's only a couple hundred feet across the yard) he was in pretty bad shape, and very pale. It was pretty evident he was in serious distress, I got on 911 and got people on the way. Even though we live out in the country, we have pretty readily available EMS and volunteer first responders and they were on scene pretty quickly. They put a CPAP mask (forces air into your lungs) on him and got him into the ambulance headed to the hospital. By the time my sister and I got there, he was in pretty good spirits and quickly recovering. The people on duty made a preliminary diagnosis of pneumonia and soon had him off the breathing assistance, then shortly into a normal room to wait for tests to come back.

Later this afternoon, the doctor moved him into the cardiac wing for further observation, pretty normal for his past history. The doctor then explained that the episode was most likely much more serious, possibly a small transient blockage, or one of the arteries from his bypass years ago trying to close up, or something similar etc.

The good thing is they don;t really think it did any real damage, or significantly injured his heart any further. An EKG test tomorrow morning will let them know more on that front. The next step is a catheterization to find out if there is a blockage or something closing off. Once they determine that, they can do a stent or balloon thing to open him back up. There are other complications due to his borderline diabetes, but the doctor is pretty confident they can mitigate anything from that over the next few days. Right now, though, he's as full of life and happy as ever. After he got past his thing this morning, he seems as good as new.

I'm incredibly happy that I was in the right place at the right time. A few minutes earlier and I would have been in the shower unable to hear the phone, a few minutes later on my way to work. I also thank whatever deity is in charge these days that medical help got here in time to do some good. That is absolutely the most helpless feeling you can ever experience, watching your Dad gasp for air and being completely powerless to do anything about it in any meaningful way. I know CPR, I know first aid, I know all that stuff. It does no good in that situation. Nothing does. I am close enough to just not caring at all any more most days without this shit to push me farther down that path. Life sucks. It hurts. I'm not terribly fond of it at all anymore, but it's the only choice we've got and I won't accept the alternative to it (life that is, I'm in no way even remotely capable of doing anything rash or stupid to myself, I'm just angry and tired and don't see any end to being angry and tired or any reason to not be any more for that matter).

I was wished a "Happy Father's Day" about four times this weekend. I don't know why, as I was alone and there was no indication that I in any way had offspring of any type.

I guess they were just covering their bases, but would they have wished a lady sitting by herself a random "Happy Mother's Day"? Somehow I don;t think they would have.

Weird. I guess I should just take it as a compliment that at least somebody on this planet thinks that I am at least capable of reproduction at this point. I mean it's been a looooong time since I had to worry in the least about the even remote possibility of fatherhood.

Gotta say the new rear gears in the Mustang have really livened it up about 200%. I can now safely cruise around in fifth without having to worry about pulling back into fourth anytime I drop more than five MPH, or hit a hill.

For those not too familiar with the way ring and pinions (the gears that actually spin your tires) affect your daily ride, here's a shot at some 'splainin'.

Your gears have a ratio, expressed as "something to one". This is the number of times the driveshaft (coupled to the back of the transmission) has to turn to get one revolution of the tires. Front and rear wheel drives have the same system, just facing in different directions. The standard Mustang ratio for 2008 was set at 3.31 to 1. So the driveshaft had to turn 3.31 times to rotate the tires once. I had 4.10 to one gears installed, which now means that the driveshaft has to turn 4.1 times for each revolution of the tires. The upshot of this is, for a numerically larger ratio, the faster the engine must turn at a given speed, but the more power it sends to the tires at that speed. Also, it gets the engine up into the "powerband" (where it produces it's maximum power) much quicker. These things lead to much quicker acceleration off the line with less effort from the car. (I like faster acceleration) There is a slight (1 or 2 mpg) loss in fuel economy, simply due to the faster engine speed (and the fact that I tend to drive less sanely with the lower gears), but it's a lot less than you would think. In a nutshell, the car now drives more like a 1960's musclecar than a prancy 2008 show pony. This is why driving a dumptruck or large earth moving equipment is awesome, they have seriously low gear ratios and neck snapping torque. (most people have no idea how easy it is to pop wheelies on a tractor) They also don't go very fast in the top speed category (unless they have been modified severely), but it's all about the acceleration. Not many places I can do 150+ around here (more than once anyway), but I get to go 0-60 everywhere.

Most people would not be terribly fond of this due to the sudden lack of "good manners", but I like it a lot. Have I mentioned I like it? I mean I get to drive around in a brute of a car that still has air conditioning, good stereo and decent gas mileage. If somebody would give me $6000 I would drop in a supercharger, gain another couple hundred horsepower and be really happy. Feel free to Paypal that to the email address on this website... No really, I'll send you pictures when I'm done and everything.

I received the new shifter, which I planned to install this weekend until the drive back from northern VA derailed that on Saturday. Guess next Saturday it is, plus the new giant suck-things-in-from-orbit air intake kit. With the new more rev-happy gearing, I really need something to correct those shifts. The stock shifter is adequate, but not great. Add that to the fact that I am not a "native" stick shift guy, and you have the potential for some embarrassing second to third moments (the Mustangs are known for a very sloppy 2-3 shift problem). Hello rev limiter, glad you're there!

Quick jaunt up to Northern Virginia. Slightly spur of the moment, but seemed like the right time to go. It's just a meet-n-greet with the customer and the field guys and gals up here on the project I am trying to beat into submission. I've pretty much turned it around 165 degrees, and I really hope this will bring it to the full 180 where it needs to be. Customer seems happy with the sudden progress, and I think some face to face time will help spread the good will. It's fun to hang out in a cable office from time to time, especially when construction guys are involved. They pretty much take crazy to interesting new levels on a regular basis. They are naturally mistrustful of us "engineering types" so it's good to mix it up with them once in a while to smooth things over.

For any of you considering a Chevy Cobalt - It's an acceptable vehicle. No trouble doing 80+ for hundreds of miles without a hiccup. I still can't believe this ting doesn't have CRUISE CONTROL. It has everything else - tilt wheel, power windows/locks/trunk release, and can even tell me what the air pressure is in each tire! But no cruise control. I didn't realize this until I was about 30 miles from the office on the first stretch of highway, reached for the button, and voila! No button! I looked all over the dash and wheel for them, but they just don't exist. Try that for seven hours and see how much you rely on the cruise control. I must have reached for it impulsively at least a hundred times on the interstate. Gah!

The Staybridge Suites in Chantilly (just a few minutes from Dulles Airport) is an excellent place. Extremely nice room, separate bedroom area from the small kitchen and seating area and each area has a separate TV. Nice. Small stove, medium size fridge, microwave, dishwasher and bar style eating area. Free interwebs, too. I wonder if I just don't leave will they still keep billing the company? And will the company notice if I don't come back?

Facebook user name is now "deebeecee" for all the throngs of people that I just know have been searching me out to listen in on my wisdom and general universal whatever.

Haven't said much about the new/old job yet. It's kind of weird and yet rather "normal" being back there. Lots of things have changed, lots of stuff is the same. I'd have to say the overall feeling is pretty good. It's still "cable" and you deal with some of the most off-the-wall situations and people that you could ever imagine on a daily basis. I guess that's really what got me into it in the first place, just the day to day weirdness and randomosity of it all. From minute to minute you really don't know what's going to be happening. You never get bored. Each customer is unique, even within the same cable company. Joes Cable System in City A is completely different than Joe's Cable System in City B, and so on. It may be the same parent company with the same corporate standards and guidelines, but the systems are as individual as fingerprints. The people that work in the offices at each system are just as indvidual as well. You get to interact with some real characters sometimes (both for better and for worse), which can make your day pretty darned interesting. The interesting things is, even after three and a half years away, I was able to sit down and pretty much dive right back in. I don't know if that's a good thing or bad sometimes.

The Mustang is ready (as of Saturday afternoon) and I'll pick it up on Monday. I really can't wait to see what effects the gear change has had on the feel of the car. After driving the Ranger for a few days in a row again, (it has the 4.10 rear option from the factory) I can tell how much more quickly and easily it accelerates from a stop than even the Mustang under "normal" throttle conditions. It just gets up and moves away much easier than the Mustang even with two less cylinders and a third less horsepower. I really need to drive a V6 Mustang to see how it compares. The Mustang uses the same 4.0 liter as the Ranger, so I'd like to see how it feels in the car out of curiosity. Next steps in the plan to create a completely impractical hotrod out of a perfectly good Mustang:
1) Apply custom tune from flash tuner gadget that came with the kit. This is necessary since, all things being computer controlled, the speedometer will be miles off with enthe new gear ratio, which will affect lots of other things in the cars PCM. The tuner will allow me to adjust parameters like gear ratio, tire size, octane rating of the fuel (it will optimize the tune for most power/torque given the gas you are putting in the tank - 87, 89 or 91 octane) and lots of other stuff like injector size (if I change them down the road), spark timing, etc. Very cool piece of hardware. It also allows for three separate custom tunes that can be obtained from performance shops equipped with the appropriate software and chassis dynos.
2) Install ultra, mega cool cold air intake kit, also from the kit. This thing has a 95mm diameter mass airflow sensor housing (makes the factory hose look like a drinking straw), smooth and nicely curved intake tube (as opposed to the factory wrinkle-flex job) and an airbox that replaces the factory system so that the filter pulls cool air from the fender area instead of hot air from the engine compartment. Should help a bit, and look much nicer than the factory "black plastic box" with the tiny intake opening.

Vacation plans are in the making. Preliminary stages anyway. I'm being drawn back to San Francisco, but that's not in concrete yet. Found an awesome hotel - Hotel Kabuki . It's literally a block away from the place I stayed last year, it's right next to the Peace Pagoda (which made me very happy) and therefore, directly adjacent to the semi-underground, larger on the inside than outside, mall of a million restaurants (which also makes me happy). It is also a fair bit cheaper than the Hotel Tomo from last year, which is saying something for San Francisco. I would really like to see the California Academy Of Sciences (missed the grand-reopening by like two weeks last year), which is in Golden Gate Park right across from the DeYoung which happens to be having a King Tut exhibit. Which is, of course, nestled conveniently next to the Hagiwara Tea Garden, one of my favorite things from last year. If there are any suggestions or nominations for locations or destinations, say so, because things could always change at any minute.

Emailed the guy at Late Model Restoration about the status of the shifter that was included in my kit of many Mustang parts this afternoon. Due to some less than clear reports from Hurst (the ever so famous shifter making folks) nobody really knew when the thing would be in their hands to send to me. Apparently Hurst went from "plenty in stock, no problems" to "we discontinued it, no more exist" to several points in between on them over the past couple of weeks.

Nice. Just one more example of how doing business has gone to crap in this world. Hurst has been a performance parts icon since the 60's. Where would we be without the Hurst Olds
special editions Oldsmobiles, Linda Vaughn (Miss Golden Shifter) and that iconic white "cue ball" shifter in almost every manual shifted musclecar ever. Now they can;t decide whether or not they actually produce one of their own shifters. Good job, guys.

At any rate, the guys at LMR took it upon themselves to find a shifter at a parts house somewhere, got it expedited out to them, and when I got home there was an email with a tracking number in it. Sure enough my shifter is on it's way and should arrive about Wednesday.

Awesome. Its shiny and it's billet, machined, aluminum, high performance goodness. With a white "cue ball" shifter. Doesn't get much better!

Had a dream last night, which for most folks isn't a big deal. For me anything more than a snippet of some mental something is a big deal, especially when it's vivid and I remember it for a couple of days. It seems that when I do start a dream, I suddenly realize that it's a dream and either wake up, or the dream just abruptly ends. A little annoying, really.

Anyway, the dream started out with me in some factory (I have dreamed about this place in snippets in the past, it's a combination of the machine shop I worked in years ago and stock factory scenes) and trying to placate some customers that weren't happy with the machine they had ordered for some reason. They seemed to be saying that it didn't really exist, and that we had just taken their money without actually producing anything. I kept telling them that the machine was just around the corner, all they had to do was walk over and look at it, but they wouldn't do that. Just kept insisting that the machine wasn't real. Finally I convinced two of them to walk with me to see the machine first hand. They agreed and we walked down a couple of hallways, then out into the main factory floor.

On the main floor, there was a huge hydraulic press (borrowed from the previous work experience) with more options, moving parts and functions than you could ever imagine (and believe me I've seen some tricked out machines). Suddenly, the entire shop burst into a spontaneous musical production around the machine. Full on "Bollywood" movie musical scene production quality stuff, singing, dancing, the machine moving in time to the music, the whole nine yards. There were people dancing on the machine while it moved and swayed, people dancing on the factory floor and everybody literally singing (I have no idea what they were singing, I just know they were) at the top of their lungs.

I was literally standing in the middle of the dream scene watching the whole thing unfold around me, completely caught off guard by the whole thing.

I had already come to the realization that I was in a dream (when I recognized the familiar "factory" location), so the fact that it didn't just poof into nothingness also had me reeling a bit, so watching was about all I could really do at the time.

Finally I turned and realized that the female customer was being played by Jessica Biel.

Of course, that's when it went "poof".

Unwrapped the new exhaust headers this afternoon. (It was like Christmas, but with car stuff!) Umm, yeah, I just hope the spent combustion products can find their way out of the car. That view is actually the "right side up" view of how they will attach to the head in the car. Supposedly they flow really well, make a few extra horsepower and they are for sure 100% stainless steel so no rust or smoky paint to burn off.

The only more convoluted set of headers I have ever seen were on a 1970's DeTomaso Pantera (the car not the band, although the band is awesome, too). Italian style, power by Ford and one amazing car. The headers have always been referred to as the "Bundle of Snakes" configuration to fit them into the rear engine compartment.

I can't wait to hear how these things sound and to see how they perform. *happydance*

Kit of shiny-ness and performance will be in my hands (sans shifter, which will come slightly later) Monday! Of course on Friday afternoon it was sitting in Greensboro. I have no idea why it has to go to Greensboro just to come down to Charlotte later. Greensboro is a couple hours away, just slightly longer than I want to drive to get something. If UPS would just bring it to Charlotte instead, I would've driven over and just picked it up, saving them the trip on Monday. Win-win for everybody! But, no, it has to be in Greensboro, way up near Raleigh and stuff.

Way to make me wait for it, UPS.

I am not easily thwarted I'll have you know. Nor am I easily gunwaled, but that's another post. I can, however, be narwhaled
- but only in animated form...

Anyway, after my FRPP Drag Pack debacle, fiasco and otherwise generally disappointing episode (I'm looking at you California), I got an email from Late Model Restoration out of Texas. LMR are purveyors of all things high performance for many autos, including the Mustang. Brad in the advertising and research department took the time to look into the kit and it's lack of availability, called Ford and arranged a meeting with some reps to discuss the issue. He then confirmed to me the fact that Ford is full of wieners and had discontinued the kit. (That's paraphrased a bit, I'm sure Brad didn't call them wieners) (at least not while they were in his office)

He let me know that LMR has put together a kit of components that not only exceed the quality of the Ford offering, but cost a bit less. Awesome. I like Brad very much now. In a strictly car guy to car guy kind of way, of course.

The kit was added to the web site this afternoon. It is awesome. It is guaranteed to raise my horsepower and testosterone levels to amazing new heights. It has a computer tuner doohickey so that I can fret endlessly over parameters and settings. It has wonderfully curvy headers for the exhaust and a cold air intake kit that flows way more air than this engine will ever use in a naturally aspirated state. So it's got that going for it. Which is nice.

I was waffling about whether to purchase the wonder kit of shiny things that make me go vroom, so I emailed Brad about the possible shipping costs of said kit. I was quickly greeted by an email proclaiming $14.99 flat rate shipping via UPS ground. That's only three days from Texas, and even if something ships separately (the Hurst shifter is currently out of stock, although I was assured that was being rectified), it falls under the same shipping cost. More awesome.

Click, done, purchased.

Thanks Texas, for having my back. Now I have to wait for three whole days.... C'mon, hurry up! I need shiny things!

Oh and it has a Real Hurst shifter with the white shifter ball, just like all the sixties muscle cars (in my head) had! Nice.

California!?!?!?!

Seriously, how could you? I was really nice when I was out there last year. I enjoyed your warm (OK, it was cold most of the time, but there were palm trees) sunny/foggy/windy days. I rode across that bridge thing. I saw giant trees and sea lions! I was happy! Even the bicycle crash didn't throw my happiness off one little bit.

Then you stab me in the back like this!

It hurts, I gotta say, it hurts deep.

I went to order my Ford Racing "Drag Pack" for the Mustang today. I was going to have Ford install it to keep it all under the factory warranty. How cool is that? A factory sanctioned racing kit, just like back in the sixties! Awesome! I get to romp around in a factory racer, how cool can that be? Extremely cool is what I am saying.

It is, unfortunately, not to be.

Due to California not granting emissions status (a gold foil star or whatever it is they do) like all the other states, Ford has discontinued the Drag Pack for the 2008 and up models. You can't get it. No sir, NOT YOURS.

Believe me, I emailed and talked to quite a few FRPP dealers and aftermarket folks today. Not gonna happen. Oh, I can buy the individual parts and pieces and have them installed. Yeah, if I wanna spend another $500 over the price of the package deal. Yeah, no thanks.

Thanks, Cali. I was thinking of coming back to visit maybe later this year. The DeYoung has a King Tut exhibit, and I never got to see the Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park. There's always plenty of food I haven't heard of out there, too.

Sigh, we'll see I guess. The knife is pretty deep in there, may take a while to heal.

Wow. Little bit of a difference in technology there, amirite?



Finally got a weather reprieve from the past couple weeks of rain today, and took the shot to replace the factory speakers in the Mustang. I kind of knew what to expect from the factory system, but I still ended up ranting and raving about the crap quality of the factory stuff. I mean the Shaker system is like a grand upgrade from the base system. For that you get paper cones and foam surrounds? I have said it before, and will say it again, NEVER, EVER buy the factory premium sound. If the sound is that important to you, just delete the radio and have somebody put in real components after you drive it home. Jebus, the rear deck speakers had WHIZZER CONES! Paper ones! That was something they did back in the days when cassette tapes were new. Tiny magnets, paper cones, flimsy frames. The rears were rated at 25 watts, the fronts at 50 - and I guarantee that was peak, not RMS. Holy crap, I'm no audiophile, but at least put something in there that is worth a flying leap. These four speakers cost me (retail) about a hundred bucks from Crutchfield. Don't tell me that Ford couldn't get a much sweeter deal than that from Kenwood, I mean, really. Shouldn't you at least get something from your extra thousand you handed the dealership?

Here's the real kicker (no pun intended) - the two door mounted subs are eight inch speakers. Not bad. But they are some kind of extreme shallow mount deals that fit specifically in the door panel pockets. They are also dual voice coil setups, so that the impedance is really low. Normally that would mean a 2 ohm load for the amplifier. Oh no! Ford can;t do that, you might be able to mount something decent in there with a little careful cut and glue work. The factory setup is rated at 1.2 ohms. Yeah, you read that right. The factory door mounted amps are rated to work with that load, so no new subs for you. Unless you completely rework the door panels, speakers and add new after market amps. Awesome. And yes, they have paper cones and tiny magnets as well. And they are bolted to the back of the door panel, so even though you can get to them without removing the panel, to remove the speaker you still have to take the door apart. Thanks, guys. No, really.

I am not even getting into the fact that the entire rear of the car has to be stripped to get the rear deck speakers out. Up until about 2005 it was a matter of unscrewing four nuts that held the speakers to the underside of the rear deck. Simple, easy, straight forward. Now they top mount them, so you have to remove the carpet in the "package tray" area to get to the screws. To do that, you need to remove the seat belt anchors, the quarter window trim, the side trim panels (beside the rear seats), the package tray cover carpet, and everything that touches any of that has to be at least loosened if not actually removed to get access to clips and fasteners. Oh and then? You have to get the four screws out of the speakers, which puts the two on the back of each speaker about an inch and a half under the rear glass. Yeah, try getting any kind of ratchet or driver into that space. There's a good six inches of empty panel in front of these two speakers, why not slide them forward and give the person trying to work some room?

The positive thing is that the sound quality of the audio system in the car is now 100% better. I can actually listen to a song instead of a collection of bass and highs and some kind of garbled stuff in the midrange. It's nice to be able to back down the treble and bass levels to a pleasant range instead of just cranking things up and hoping for the best. It's also nice to be able to listen at a comfortable level while riding with the windows down. I'm a big fan of cruising with the windows down, even with the hot summers we have here, the A/C tends to stay off, unless there's a reason to run it (or in the rare event I have a passenger). I like the wind blowing through the car and it lets me listen to the new exhaust rumble. Makes me smile.

Some photographic evidence:
Nekkid rear!

This is a "whizzer cone"

Well done door mount

Front speaker magnet was so small it wouldn't stick to the steel table it sat on

For the past 4 days, everything in life seems to be - while not exactly blowing up in my face- kind of annoyingly poofing and popping in my general direction. It is pissing me off accordingly. Rained all weekend, stuff breaking, computer not booting, software crashing, code not compiling, conversations completely falling apart, people driving slowly in my lane, you name it.

Stop it universe.

Don't make me come over there.

You think those black holes and other spatial anomalies are bothering you? Yeah, you don't want none of this. Just ask those pesky ceolocanths. I will do something galactic in nature if need be.

Just in case any of you see me on the news or something, just remember, I didn't start it.

To my chronological doppelganger on the other side of the planet, Happy Birthday Bumjube! (It should be the right day on that side of the world already, anyway)

Don't know if you're reading, but I hope life is treating you well and congrats on turning 21 (again)!