Well, I said I would drive my Toyota Camry until it died. It finally died. I got a new car, a “galaxy” (gun metal gray) Mazda MX5 Miata Touring edition. I’ve included some links to some sites with very similar cars. I’ll post photos soon.
http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/displayPage.action?pageParameter=modelsMain&vehicleCode=MX5
http://www.autoblog.com/2006/05/22/2006-mazda-mx-5-grand-touring-in-the-autoblog-garage-day-1-2/
On the fourteenth, the driver’s side window on my Camry was acting funny. I didn’t really think about it. Then, I took a trip to the IBM conference. When I got home, the window was down. At first, I thought I left the window down, until it wouldn’t go up. Then, I thought someon broke in. Then, I got it home and opened the door panel. The window was broken, the lifter was broken, and the motor box for the door was completly busted. Yikes. The garage estimated over a grand to fix it in parts and labor.
So, a new car it is. Come and visit us in and I’ll let you drive it…
Well, yesterday my father in law convinced me to help him build fence. Normally, not any concerns. It was us, Bryan, and Rick. I met up with everyone at 7:30 to beat the heat.
It started out slow. On the way over, the wheel on one of the trailers hauling equipment lost a tire. It took quite a while to get the wheel back on. By the time we got started, it was already 8:45.
After a little while, we got going. The first section went slow, but well. By the time we finished it was 10:30. At this point, finishing at 11:00 was only a dream. And, it was already very high 90 degrees.
We started the second, longer, section. It had two “gulleys”. When we tried to pull wire over the second one, we realized we had to take out some trees. The first set of trees were to be cut down. The second, bulldozed in. This was a good time for a break and we took the opportunity to get lunch. Even in the shade, it was hot.
After lunch, Rick and I used the dozer and Bryan and Keith used the chainsaws. Rick was pretty skillfull with the dozer. He not only cleared the trees but cleaned up the groundwork. I hadn’t moved the fenceposts far enough and we bent two. Bryan fell one of the trees on the first pulled wire. We were in heat overload, it was well into 100 degrees.
We kept working. The four wheeler of Bryans transmission locked up (no tranmission fluid). At this point, we were stuck, it was a 100 degrees and we were in a section with no air flow. We called it a day with the second section in need of repair. What an experience.
Recently, I had a wonderful trip. August 1 through August 4, a few of us from Chesapeake made a trip to Oracle’s headquarters. Chesapeake just purchased PeopleSoft. Oracle purchased PeopleSoft a little while back. Oracle decided to invite us in for a corporate visit. What a treat. We stayed at the incredible Sofitel hotel during the visit. Our spouses got to go with us. So, Glenda got to go with me.
While we were visiting with Oracle, our spouses got to make a trip into San Francisco. They had fun and took pictures. If I get copies, I’ll post them.
During the visit, we took a day of relaxing. While Glenda and the ladies went to the Pebble Beach Spa, some of us played at round of golf at Pebble Beach. We actually played the Pebble Beach course, SpyGlass Hill. It was rated as five strokes more difficult. Wow, this course was beautiful and very difficult.
For one evening, we made a trip to Carmel By The Sea. While there, we visited the Bouchee wine bar and restaurant. We had dinner at the da Giovanni restaurant. I had the lamb chops and shared a bottle of Nickel and Nickel merlot.
During the whole trip, the weather was incredible. While it was 100+ for the last few weeks in Oklahoma, it was beautiful in California. On average, the tempature had a high of 65F. What a break from the Oklahoma weather. Stepping off the plane on the return trip was a shocker.
Wonderful trip. We traveled on the corporate plane, a Cessna Citation X. Ate incredible food. Incredible golf. Time by the sea. I feel very priviledged to get to experience such beauty.
Well, don’t know much about it, but it looked beautiful. They made a ten day (10!) in a recreational vehicle across the nation. They had incredible pictures. Dad let the pictures roll for quite some time. I’ll have to get some and post them. What a trip!
Is Angela back with Skyler? Oh, my!