Weekend Update - April 22nd
Weekend Update
Well, what sort of a weekend was it for me?
On balance, I think it was a good weekend for me. I had a chance to chat online with my friend Ling who now lives in Shenzhen, China. We have been chatting off and on for almost four years now. We first started chatting when Ling in her junior year of college. She wanted to practice English with a native speaker.
Ling told me that she had applied to graduate school in the States. She wants to take a Master’s degree in computer engineering I think. I could be wrong. She has applied to a number of schools but none is in Southern California. All of her choices are located on the East Coast.
I said that I could visit her at school. Ling said she thought I had planned to visit China this year. That was when I explained to her that I was paying for a marriage this Fall. Ling understood immediately and said a school visit would be just as nice.
I had planned to go to the cinema and see HOT FUZZ this weekend. I changed my mind and decided to stay home and do other things, like writing the blog, instead. I am confident the film will still be around by next weekend.
We had rain off and on for most of Friday. That was no fun. Saturday was bright and sunny and I spent the afternoon in school. Sunday is supposed to have some more rain. The rain is supposed to start late this afternoon. I hope that I will be home from El Gringo before it starts to rain.
Southern California does need the rain. I think we are at less than 20% of our normal rainfall. Our rain season is about over. This means we are very likely to have a very bad brush fire season this Summer and Fall.
Visitors
This was an off week for visitors. We had no visitors that stayed for more than a few minutes at the blog.
We did have a nice collection of foreign visitors to the blog. My writing must have appealed to the English and Canadians. We had ten visitors from the United Kingdom and seven from Canada. I did check and all of the visitors from the United Kingdom were from England.
We also had visitors from Texas [2], France [2], Romania, Ireland, Japan [3], Hong Kong [2], Mexico [2], India, Italy, Indonesia, Turkey [2], China [2], Korea [3], Poland, Sweden, Greece, New Zealand, Viet Nam, United Arab Emirates, and Spain.
I do appreciate each of you who took time from your days to visit the blog. Having visitors is one reason why I continue to write. If no one visited the blog, then there would be no reason to write. I know what has happened in my life.
Woman of the Moment
I had thought about putting the Woman of the Moment closer to the top of the blog instead of burying it towards the end of the blog for a change. I trust that this will meet with your approval.
On a related note, I decided to feature Denise Richards, an American actress of some talent, as the next Woman of the Moment. Like many American actresses, the only photos that are easily available are ones that are taken at celebrity events. Even so, she is interesting and I think the photos are worthwhile.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly News about the Prelude
I took the Prelude in for service on Friday to have the speed cable replaced and to have the major maintenance performed. The horrible grinding, thumping noise is gone now that the speed cable has been replaced. I can also know exactly how fast I am going now. I think this is good for me.
The Prelude is almost nineteen years old and has been driven for 342,000 miles / 550,000 kilometers so far. I have been very lucky so far as there have been no major repairs required for the car.
Things are now starting to wear out. This is to be expected. I found out that I need to replace both front axles and the four fuel injectors. This will cost me about USD$2,000. Then, there are some other minor things to replace. These will be an additional USD$200 or so, maybe less depending on where I have the work done.
Fixing the fuel injectors will probably pay for themselves since any repairs will increase the car’s fuel efficiency and save me money on fuel. The car is a front wheel drive so the axles ought to wear.
If I have all of this work done and later on this year I replace the transmission, I am going to spend around USD$5,000 on the Prelude. If I do this, I will want to keep the car for another two or three years to get my money back out of the repairs. Then, it will be over twenty years old.
I need to make some decisions soon about the Prelude.
Giuliano’s Sandwich
Doug and I went to Giuliano’s for dinner one night last week. He had a chicken sandwich. It was a grilled chicken breast in a roll. He said it was a good meal.
I had a small Italian sausage and peppers sandwich with mushrooms, onions, and marinara sauce. It is a tasty meal that I enjoyed. It is on the messy side as you can see from the photo. I ended up eating it with a knife and fork. A full or regular sized sandwich is too much food for me unless it will be the only meal of the day.
Dissertation
The dissertation took another interesting turn on Friday.
I got an email from school that announced that one of my committee members received a promotion and will be moving to a different campus soon, probably before I finish. I sent him a congratulatory email. In it, I wondered if he will remain on my committee or not. I guess I will learn soon enough.
That was the bulk of my weekend gentle readers
Be well and stay happy.
Well, what sort of a weekend was it for me?
On balance, I think it was a good weekend for me. I had a chance to chat online with my friend Ling who now lives in Shenzhen, China. We have been chatting off and on for almost four years now. We first started chatting when Ling in her junior year of college. She wanted to practice English with a native speaker.
Ling told me that she had applied to graduate school in the States. She wants to take a Master’s degree in computer engineering I think. I could be wrong. She has applied to a number of schools but none is in Southern California. All of her choices are located on the East Coast.
I said that I could visit her at school. Ling said she thought I had planned to visit China this year. That was when I explained to her that I was paying for a marriage this Fall. Ling understood immediately and said a school visit would be just as nice.
I had planned to go to the cinema and see HOT FUZZ this weekend. I changed my mind and decided to stay home and do other things, like writing the blog, instead. I am confident the film will still be around by next weekend.
We had rain off and on for most of Friday. That was no fun. Saturday was bright and sunny and I spent the afternoon in school. Sunday is supposed to have some more rain. The rain is supposed to start late this afternoon. I hope that I will be home from El Gringo before it starts to rain.
Southern California does need the rain. I think we are at less than 20% of our normal rainfall. Our rain season is about over. This means we are very likely to have a very bad brush fire season this Summer and Fall.
Visitors
This was an off week for visitors. We had no visitors that stayed for more than a few minutes at the blog.
We did have a nice collection of foreign visitors to the blog. My writing must have appealed to the English and Canadians. We had ten visitors from the United Kingdom and seven from Canada. I did check and all of the visitors from the United Kingdom were from England.
We also had visitors from Texas [2], France [2], Romania, Ireland, Japan [3], Hong Kong [2], Mexico [2], India, Italy, Indonesia, Turkey [2], China [2], Korea [3], Poland, Sweden, Greece, New Zealand, Viet Nam, United Arab Emirates, and Spain.
I do appreciate each of you who took time from your days to visit the blog. Having visitors is one reason why I continue to write. If no one visited the blog, then there would be no reason to write. I know what has happened in my life.
Woman of the Moment
I had thought about putting the Woman of the Moment closer to the top of the blog instead of burying it towards the end of the blog for a change. I trust that this will meet with your approval.
On a related note, I decided to feature Denise Richards, an American actress of some talent, as the next Woman of the Moment. Like many American actresses, the only photos that are easily available are ones that are taken at celebrity events. Even so, she is interesting and I think the photos are worthwhile.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly News about the Prelude
I took the Prelude in for service on Friday to have the speed cable replaced and to have the major maintenance performed. The horrible grinding, thumping noise is gone now that the speed cable has been replaced. I can also know exactly how fast I am going now. I think this is good for me.
The Prelude is almost nineteen years old and has been driven for 342,000 miles / 550,000 kilometers so far. I have been very lucky so far as there have been no major repairs required for the car.
Things are now starting to wear out. This is to be expected. I found out that I need to replace both front axles and the four fuel injectors. This will cost me about USD$2,000. Then, there are some other minor things to replace. These will be an additional USD$200 or so, maybe less depending on where I have the work done.
Fixing the fuel injectors will probably pay for themselves since any repairs will increase the car’s fuel efficiency and save me money on fuel. The car is a front wheel drive so the axles ought to wear.
If I have all of this work done and later on this year I replace the transmission, I am going to spend around USD$5,000 on the Prelude. If I do this, I will want to keep the car for another two or three years to get my money back out of the repairs. Then, it will be over twenty years old.
I need to make some decisions soon about the Prelude.
Giuliano’s Sandwich
Doug and I went to Giuliano’s for dinner one night last week. He had a chicken sandwich. It was a grilled chicken breast in a roll. He said it was a good meal.
I had a small Italian sausage and peppers sandwich with mushrooms, onions, and marinara sauce. It is a tasty meal that I enjoyed. It is on the messy side as you can see from the photo. I ended up eating it with a knife and fork. A full or regular sized sandwich is too much food for me unless it will be the only meal of the day.
Dissertation
The dissertation took another interesting turn on Friday.
I got an email from school that announced that one of my committee members received a promotion and will be moving to a different campus soon, probably before I finish. I sent him a congratulatory email. In it, I wondered if he will remain on my committee or not. I guess I will learn soon enough.
That was the bulk of my weekend gentle readers
Be well and stay happy.
posted by Chuck Reinhardt at 11:12 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home