Friday, September 26, 2008

G (double) A (double) S (double) R U N Gas Run!

Your resident idiot gas-will-be-here-when-I-need-it blogger finally accepted that his pride must be swallowed (insert gulping sound here) down like the gas in the tank of a Ford Excursion.  I went on a gas-run.  

With the D.T.E. (distance till empty) gauged queued up in the car, the a/c off, and the radio up, I headed out at 12:30 am.  I had enjoyed watching the #1 college football team in the country, the USC Trojans, get beat by the Oregon State Beavers and was feeling very optimistic.  I thought if one under dog can win, so can I.  I took a cursory glance at my own exit, knowing the BP had fuel at 9pm but not wanting to wait, it was out.  My roommate Tim informed me that Mooresville, exit 36, had gas at multiple stations I headed north.  There's gas in them there tanks, I know it paw... I need to start shootin' at some food.  

I pass by exit 25, dry, exit 28, dry and dead at this time of night.  With 40 miles registered on the DTE, I had a choice, do I go home with enough fuel in the tank to make to work, but not back from work was the logical choice, I would have better shot of finding gas during the day on the way to work.  Choice two was to head to Mooresville, hope they still had gas, if not, I would go home and call out of work until my exit had confirmed supplies of gas.  I chose the second.  I felt like I was on a quest for the Holy Grail, by God, I had to find out the nationality of the swallow.  

I pulled into three stations, no gas, upon the hill, high upon that hallowed hill I had the Marathon and the Hess station.  These holy parishes of liquid goodness surely possess the cure to what ails me.  Indeed, the Hess had gas, cheaper gas, but no premium, WINI is a woman of sophisticated taste, and she drinks '93 Chateau D'Petro.  Marathon had it for a bargain at $4.39 a gallon.  A sixty dollar drink of Chateau D'Petro later, we were on our way.  

I still would like to avoid the editorial, but I thought it brilliant that I just paid $4.39 for gas and didn't care, I was happy to have it.  The oil tycoons are way smarter than me.  If you want me to pay four bucks, give me the choice between that or none at all and see what I do.  

On the way home I enjoyed a faster pace in my 36mpg rocket car.  DTE said 464 miles, I was hooked up.  I ventured to exit 25 and decided to see if the Cashions had fuel, it would figure that the one I did not check would have it, but alas, dry!  Going down Sam Furr Road, I saw a figure from my peripheral vision, I slammed on the brakes in the curve and the deer entered the beam of light from my HID's I then steered to where the deer had come from hoping that she would continue running.  She did, I heard her tail slap the WINI's bonnet and I began to correct my over correction.  I looped the car completely around and came to a complete stop facing Concord, I swear my boot was just facing that way seconds ago... oh.. yeah... it had been.  
A little note here:  I cannot suggest enough a defensive driving course.  It gives you the reflexes you need to avoid accidents.  I would never have known how to correct and re correct the car, modulate the brakes, control the skid, and intentionally spin a car to a stop without my instructors.  Thanks!


I returned to the Smith's house at 1:30, heart racing, blood pressure high, and a little weary of this shit.  

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Ultimate Frisbee in the News

Oh yes... cracker jack jon is beyond white... check out the latest entry on Stuff White People Like.

Gas Shortage

I did not want to join the thousands who are currently editorializing the mysterious gas shortage coupled with the economic slowdown... so I won't.  I will however record here my feelings so that when the archives of the blog are read by my kids, they will know what Dad thought.

I am scared... I am very scared.  I know that we will have gas tomorrow, somewhere, I am scared that my stuburn butt will try to push the envelop and get stuck on the way.  The S-10 is out of gas, the MINI has about 60 miles left and I have a 50 mile round trip commute.  I do not want to buy into the hysteria surrounding the temporary shortage of gasoline, but I am concerned.

Moreover, I am scared about the affect on our weekend economy.  I watch every day when Independence Blvd. fills up from 4:30 to 6:30 full of Monrovians heading back home.  Today, I assume because of the lack of gas... cars trickled by, one by one, at 5:30.  There was no backup, there was no one on the road.  The traffic seemed down more than 50 percent, the customer count was down over 60%.  This weekend will suck.

Tertiary concerns lay with the economy.  I am now thinking in the back of my head about my stock holdings, my retirement, my mother's retirement, my business.  I have not reached panic mode but Amanda and I have began to talk about ways we can scale back and set ourselves up to weather this downturn if it lasts longer than the spring of 2009.  We have also suspended entertaining thoughts of bringing a child into this world... we will eventually... but the next couple years are not promising.  

New & Notes From The Bradshaw's
- Our house has insulation, gas lines, and has the back windows done.
- We have canceled this weekends plans of going to the Cleveland County Fair
- The responsible adult side of me has won out and the MINI will be for sale soon... well.. maybe.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Mean Muggin'

I am not sure if any of you are familiar with the term "mean muggin.' " Mean muggin' is defined by the fine folks at urban dictionary as "the evil eye, lookin at someone hard." I was not very familiar with this term until one of my co-workers in Chicago used it regularly and I began to incorporate it into my vernacular. Below you will find the male in the picture clearly mean muggin' while his date (prom maybe, thanks photobucket) is unaware.



Rational thought would make you think that in land of "Southern Hospitality" that this phenomenon would be much less prevolent that in the millions deep midwest city I hold dear. In the ten weeks since Amanda and I's return, I have actually noticed it to be a more common practice. Maybe, before having defined and quantified the action, I was just oblivious in my last tenure of residence in the Queen City.



One of the hourly associates at my place of work has a tendency to mean mug all day long. His is a scowl, a slightly apathetic stare, when coupled with his rugged exterior creates a menacing look. I was assigned to be his mentor about 5 weeks ago and during our first meeting, I brought up that his look may prevent him from being as successful as he wants to be. He has been actively trying to overcome is non-intentional disadvantage. After some scepticism, he realized I was being honest and his persona on the outside finally matches the inside.



Earlier last week, I was mean mugged by a customer I was trying to explain something that was very beneficial to him. The sad thing is he could have gotten some freebees, an oil change or something, if he has been pleasent. Instead of that route, I raised my intensity to match his. On Friday I was mean mugged by a construction worker who was building my house. I thought to myself "if it weren't for me, would he be working right now." After getting off my Republican-esque high horse, I decided that I was intruding on his work space and maybe I deserved it. I did create a good deal of extra work for him. On Saturday, I was mean mugged at a 3 year old's birthday party, I am not sure of the provocation for said "muggin.' "



I conclude with this... people of the world. Stop MEAN MUGGIN' people!

Monday, September 22, 2008

ANDY

My Big (but slightly shorter) Brother Andy just got accepted to Robert Morris!!!



I am very proud of you!

Friday, September 19, 2008

House Update

Thought I would tell you guys about the pre-drywall meeting I had today. The weather was perfect, of the four houses in our section of the neighborhood, we are a week ahead of all of them. Good because I want in our house badly, bad because we won't be the last ones in. The only boo-boo's that we found were that they forgot to run the gas line for our stove, he thought we had electric. He was wrong, Monday all will be well. A positive boo-boo we noticed was that they ran two rough-ins for dual sinks in the guest bathroom... we didn't pay for that upgrade. He has to find out what type of cabinet we ordered, they may or may not go ahead and put the second sink in. If not, we will know it is there and if/when we want to remodel, it will be ready to go. The previously noted issue with the stairs, the half wall was about six inches higher was fixed as we walked around the upstairs, consider it done. The tenative schedule is now:
Monday: Frame Inspection
(add missing gas line and cable outlet)
Tuesday: Insulation
Wednesday: Insulation Inspection
Thursday: Drywall Begins
Friday: We may get a completion date!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Charlotte 49ers Football


This is the editorial cartoon from the observer after Charlotte's rally for a college football team.  I will buy PSL's when we get one, I will have season tickets, I will support it.  I do not understand why people are complaining that the students will bear a lot of the start up costs.  Guess what,  as a graduate, I feel that my degree will appreciate in prestige with the notoriety that comes with a football team.  When more people have heard of your school, the higher the value of your degree seems to be.

Case-in-point:

During last year's NCAA basketball championship tournament, I was asked by more people what I knew about Davidson.  Davidson, a great academic school, had made a deep run but no one knew if it were a special ed school or a school that made your education special.  Have you ever heard anyone wonder if it is tough to get into Duke, no, Dick Vitale always reminds people that the Cameron Crazies have all scored 1500+ on their SAT's.  

Sunday, September 14, 2008

poof, weekend gone!

Amanda and I passed our weekend in our favorite place, the mountains!  We went up to Blowing Rock Friday night, slept in, then went off to the Shoppes on the Parkway because my silly butt forgot to pack underwear.  After a stop at Banana Republic to pick some boxers up, we headed on to Boone for some Mellow Mushroom pizza.  
We motored down 221 where in 20 miles I took 500 miles off my tires and carved up the twisties.  I know I am rocking it when I begin to hear a noise on the right side of WINI, that would be Amanda giggling in the passenger seat.
After getting lost in the Linville area, we finally found ourselves at the Linville Caverns.  This is one of the few attractions where you walk out feeling like you really got your money's worth.  We spent $6, Amanda and I decided we would pay $10, but no way $11.  The best part of the day was stopping in at Linville Falls where the guy at the information hut lectured us on how we should leave Charlotte.  His solution for Charlotte is and I quote "I think they should wall that city up, give everyone a gun and let nature take its course, then we can get in there and clean it up and make it nice."  Uh yeah, we were reminded we were in mountains.
Today we got up, had breakfast, motored a little more, then came back to the Inn.  We made the trip up to Grandfather Mountain, ate some lunch, saw the bears, eagle, and otters.  We got dropped off in a lower parking lot and Amanda and I hiked up to the mile high bridge, meeting her Dad up on the bridge.  We sat and just chatted out on the far rocks overlooking the hideous "monstrosity on the mountain" hotel.  After some afternoon naps we headed back, coming down the mountain it went from 69 to 85 degrees... and back to reality.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

MINI Travesty


This is sad... I don't want them to dilute my favorite brand... I know market share is great, just don't forget to dance with the one that brung you, the motoring enthusiast.  

Allow me to introduce the 2010 MINI Crossman... SUV sellout.

Many Mini Plans...

Picture the car & cross in silver, to match the exterior of my car.  This is the roof/bonnet scheme that I have come up with to cover WINI. The knotwork will be die cut.
These are the alloy wheels I want, they are off the John Cooper Works GP.  
*note- these modifications are post-house pending and have not been approved by Amanda Bradshaw



Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Accident

Amazing that I have yet another reason to hate the city of Atlanta.  Below are photos of my wreck in Atlanta on Monday Night.

The smoke you see above is from the airbags... without my glasses I thought the car was on fire... I am so dramatic.
It is hard to tell from this angle, but the front fender & headlight are shifted about six inches outside, so the front of the car sticks out further than the passenger mirror.
After the initial contact, the back of her SUV came around and hit the back of my car.
The airbags did the most damage, knocking my glasses off and burning my arm, but I am sure in the split second I hit them they helped absorb some impact.

Bye Bye Acura TL, I will never see you again.  Essentially, a lady just pulled from the left lane right in front of me.  I was in the far right lane, going about 45 mph, and boom!  

Injury List:
Boo boo on head, slight cut
Airbag burn on my left arm
Seat belt related bruises
 (my chest looks like a negative photo of a dive flag)
and worst of all...
My right Pinky Nail was broken!!!

The 6-7 month pregnant driver of the SUV was okay as well... Thank GOD!



Friday, September 05, 2008

We have a first floor, second floor, roof, garage...

At the end of the day Thursday!
That is our guest shower, so you know, come on over.
This is the back view from Thursday, a convertible house is all the rage right now.  
SPF 40 anyone?
Here is the front of our house Friday afternoon... as you can see, they put a hardtop on our convertible house dream, the rolled up the windows too!
That sure does look like a good place to put WINI.


We are completely framed up!  We also have a roof and all interior walls.  Everything is wrapped up, exterior doors are hung, and all save for the living room windows are also in.  They have moved very fast.  They are framing the house behind us at the same time, we are mere days ahead!  I was cool to walk around my house today and see what the guts look like.  The slab looks so small, when there is no sheetrock the house looks very small, the rooms look tiny and you cannot imagine yourself showering in the little area.  The cool thing is that eventually it will be the mini mansion that we bought.  I am so friggin excited!

Thursday, September 04, 2008

New to FGIALC!

To the right you will see a new feature to Blogger and to Fat Guy In A Little Car.  The poll of the week will be posted as often as my lazy but can think of it.  I will usually be trying to solve a household debate by way of democracy.  I think this is a great way to show my election spirit and get answers to life's great question.  Like any democracy, participation is paramount.

This week's question is a debate over the name Hayden, Tim and Sara are considering this name for a child not yet created.  Does the name belong to a boy or girl or both?  Does it just suck?  You, the people, should decide.

Also new is a follower tab, just lets me know who is reading... if I see your name I may write something for you.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

We have a first floor!

I just wanted everyone to know we have a first floor.  They poured the slab on Tuesday, today the entire first floor is framed and two walls of the second floor.  I am so excited.  The front of our house sticks out about two feet further than either neighbor.  I love it because when you walk outside the front door you will not see the neighbors house.  I expect we will see a roof on the house tomorrow.  I will try to steal a camera and take some pictures tomorrow.

Monday, September 01, 2008

Flood Damage (follow up)

The damage is very minimal!  Thank God, there are some water lines on our bedroom furniture but the stain did not come out of the wood, no cracks or big issues.  Thanks to SMIL & FIL for getting our stuff dry!