Based on history, there's an 8% chance of rain on any given Thanksgiving Day in metro Phoenix. That works out to once every 12 years. This is that year. All the models agree, and so do the homely people - that the extreme low off the coast of California will bring between .5" and 1" of rain to the valley beginning Wednesday and continuing into Thursday. Since Goodyear, the location of the triathlon, is in the west valley our only hope is that by Thursday morning the rain will have moved sufficiently east to leave the course rain free, if not dry.
My mile times are modest at best, and your turkey will cook in less time than it takes me to do the swim. I need a good bike segment for any hope of avoiding total humiliation, and that can't happen on wet streets.
If this were NASCAR they'd delay the race and run those trucks with jet-powered dryers on the back.
This last Sunday they had the "Tour of Tuscon," a competitive bike ride in and around that city 120 miles southeast of here. Sixty cyclists competed. A driver heading south made a left turn across a main street and in front of a north-bound group of those cyclists. One sustained life-threatening injuries and may not survive, two are in critical condition and seven more received less serious injuries.
After the incident the driver got out to examine the damage to his car, looked at the fallen cyclists, and then drove off.
They're still looking for him.
I didn't expect to see a new Maserati parked in the lot in front of Home Depot, but there is was, gleaming black and beautiful. What do-it-yourself-er drives a Maserati? He should be hiring a handyman!
At the pot-luck last night I sat across from a guy who has worked 28 years for a local GM and Cadillac dealer. He works in the service center, not sales, so he's got work. We talked briefly about how bad the car market is, and someone else asked him if a buyer could get a good deal. He said it was almost a "write your own ticket" situation. He said that right now moving units is more important than making money. So will they sell me an XLR for $2,000? I'll go as high as $2,500.
One of the things I did today was repair another garage door opener by removing and replacing the drive gear. That project sounds a lot simpler than it is, but it's a job well worth doing.
A new garage door opener runs about $130, while a gear kit can be ordered over the internet for $20, including shipping. I knew it needed a new drive gear from opening it up and looking at it last week. They make that gear - about 3" in diameter and 1/2" thick - out of nylon. It turns against a hard plastic worm gear. The laws of physics (I don't really know anything about the laws of physics, I just always wanted to use that phrase) assure that a hard plastic gear will last longer, and eventually chew up a softer nylon gear. Which explains why the drive gear had no teeth left, and the area underneath it was filled with a fine white nylon dust.
I'm curious why they do that, why they make the gear that takes the most stress out of nylon. Is there some reason the worm and drive gears can't be made out of metal? The engine in my car has metal gears. So does a manual transmission. What's the problem?
Citigroup is too big to allow to fail. So say the experts.
How big is too big to fail? Is General Motors too big? General Electric? General Mills? General Hospital?
How 'bout Capital Property Maintenance?
The Black Hole
Discuss.
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