Scooter

I used my Yamaha scooter for one of the purposes I bought it for. I needed to run to my credit union to deposit my monthly retirement check, my latest paycheck from the Post Office and a small refund check I received in connection with my Individual Retirement Account (IRA). My credit union is located in town so it would be an easy trip for my scooter. I had no problems getting there and depositing the checks. From there, I drove to a Burger King close to where I live. I'd clipped some Burger King coupons from a coupon packet I'd received in the mail. One was for buy 2 Whoppers for $5 (you save 98 cents). Also, I wanted to try their new burger bites (they were good and were the same size as White Castle hamburgers). I suspect the cashier was surprised to have someone pull in a scooter. I used one of my backpacks to carry the burgers home. I didn't notice any great wind resistance with the backpack thankfully. I plan to use it again when I need to make a fast food run or small item (a CD or DVD) shopping trip.

Gas wise, I can confirm I do get over 100 miles to the gallon. I've driven over 60 miles on my scooter and, I just hit the halfway point on the gas gauge. I've also noticed that I do get some respect from drivers. I've ridden bicycles on main roads and gotten honked at. With my scooter, no one has given me a hard time.

Overall, I'm pleased with the scooter barring the idle problem. Its annoying to have to keep revving the scooter when I come to a stop. My gas milage might be even better were it not for that. I plan to call the motorcycle dealership tomorrow and see if they have the new tire in. If so, I'll see if I can drop it off, walk over to Best Buy for a little while then, come back and ride it home. Cheers all!

Laptop Saga Continues

My laptop saga continues. Thursday, I received my new Sprint U300 modem. This is the modem that will enable me to take advantage of Sprint's upgrades to its data network. When finished, a person using this 4th generation card will be able to get WiFi connection speeds anywhere. For now, it's limited to certain areas like Baltimore. I figured since I needed to get a new card, I might as well get this 4th generation card so I could take advantage of the upgrade when it became available. Plus, I travel down to Baltimore occasionally.

The card arrived in fine shape. I read the directions on what I should do. I summarily installed the software and drivers that were needed for the card. Then, I rebooted my computer. After that, I attached the card to the computer. At this point, the program was supposed to activate the card itself. It didn't. I called up the menu on the program options and clicked activate. Nothing happened. I managed to find a phone number you could call for assistance with activating the card. They hung up on me twice. Finally, I called Sprint Customer Service. They kept me waiting for over 20 minutes. When I did get to speak to someone, it was very knowledgeable and took me through the steps to activate the card. They didn't work.

The next day, I took the card and my computer to a Sprint store in town where they could try to get it to work. After over an hour at the store, they told me I had a faulty card. I'd have to call for a replacement and send back the faulty card. Crap! I was able to get them to reactivate my old card so I could connect to the Internet. That's how I'm able to post this. So, I'll have to wait 2 or 3 days for a new card and try again. Hopefully, the new card will work. Until I can get on the Internet, I can't begin to get my new laptop up to speed. So, it sits it its new backpack. I may take it over to Panera so I can try to access their WiFi connection. I've wanted to try that for a while and, that would enable me to start installing various programs off the Internet like Firefox. We'll see.

That concludes my latest chapter of my laptop saga. I still have hope I can start to get things working on my new ultra computer. We'll see. Stay tuned.

Scooter Update

I took my new Yamaha scooter for its first real ride yesterday. I wanted to start getting the hang of riding it. It's been years since I rode any kind of bike so, I wasn't use to leaning into turns. Yesterday, thanks to the ride, I started to get the hang of it. Also, I started exploring the area around where I live. I'd like to figure out a way to reach some of the major malls in the area. One limitation of the scooter is you can't ride on roads that have a speed limit higher than 50 mph. That'll make it tricky trying to reach Columbia Mall or Arundel Mills Mall. Still, if I stay on local roads, I may be able to do it. We'll see on that.

The scooter is still having problems idling. I've gotten really good at starting the thing. I've gotten the hang of using the turn signals on it and, I was able to get the mirrors set up to where I can see if there are cars behind me or to either side. I've found the compartment where I can put my helmet spacious. I haven't tried to put my helmet in it yet to see if it'll fit in there. I'm not to sure how secure the compartment is. I plan to try riding the scooter with a backpack soon. I want to see how much resistance I get then. A backpack would enable me to do some limited shopping. That would be a help as I could do minor shopping trips using the scooter saving wear and tear on my car. We'll how well that works.

Overall, I've been pretty pleased with the scooter. It runs well and seems sturdy enough. Also, it looks nice. With rising gas prices, it should save me some money during Spring, Summer and Fall. Once I get the rear tire replaced and the idling problem fixed, the scooter should be good to go. If it continues to be fun to ride, I'll see about getting a faster one next year. Cheers all!

Dell M1730 Laptop Review

As I may have mentioned previously, I have a couple issues with my new Dell laptop. First, I can't use my Sprint PCS Connection card on it. My card has a 54 pin connector and, the laptop uses a 38 pin connector. I visited Sprint's store in Laurel, Maryland and their website store in search of an adapter so I could convert the card to a 38 pin connector. I struck out. So, I ordered a new PCS Connection card. Since, I had to order a new card, I decided to go with their new 4th generation card. This card will be able to take advantage of improvements Sprint is making on their data network. The network will be able to offer Wifi like connection speeds. A minimum of 2 megabytes per second with a maximum of a whopping 16 megabytes! The system upgrade is already available in Baltimore (lucky them). Once I get this new card, I'll be able to continue setting up my new laptop.

Also, I ordered a backpack that will be big enough to hold my new laptop. My order isn't big enough. The M1730 laptop is approximately 3 inches long and a 1/2 inch wider that my old laptop. My old Dell backpack wouldn't be able to hold the new laptop. Thankfully, Dell does offer a really good backpack that will hold up and do a good job of protecting the laptop. The reviews others wrote on it were very good. The downside is the backpack costs approximately $80. As I do want to take the laptop on travels within the U.S., I had to get the backpack. It should arrive within a week or so.

So that's what's happening with my new kick butt Dell laptop. Slowly but surely, it is getting there. It is a very nice machine and, I'm sure I will enjoy it in time. I have learned some lessons I won't forget it i.e. you can't transfer programs from one computer to another. You must install them on the new machine just as you did on the old computer.

Casey's Crab Co.

I said in an earlier post that I would blog about this store. Here goes. Casey's Crab Co. is located on Maryland 198 (heading toward Laurel) just up from the Maryland 198 & Maryland 32 overpass. As the store's name implies, they sell crabs live or steamed. They also sell shrimp, fish & chips, devilled eggs and some other seafood items and as well as shaved ice cups. They have something 20 different flavors of shaved ice. I tried their root beer and found it all right. I thought it reasonably priced. I think the large one I had cost around $2.50.

Seafood wise, I tried their fish & chips, their shrimp salad and their steamed shrimp. Casey's advertise that they have the best fish & chips in Laurel. I wonder if that's because no else claims that title. I wasn't wiped out with the fish though I thought it decent. It looked like a flat fish slab that had been breaded. It was decent but, it wasn't anything to get excited about. The fries on the other hand were tasty. I presume they season them with crab seasoning. They're not your standard crisp McDonald like fries but, I still think they are good. The portion you get with the fish is decent. Casey's offers daily specials and one of them is their fish & chips so you can save some money on this by going there on the day it's on special.

Their shrimp salad was good. The shrimp in it were of very good size and, it was tasty. The only drawback to their shrimp salad is it is pricey. I believe it was something like $17 a pound. Still, it is better than other shrimp salads out there like the one you can buy at Sam's Club which isn't nearly as good. The shrimp in that salad are almost microscopic.

I was able to find a couple coupons for Casey's in the Clipper Magazine which is a flier that comes out in various places including Laurel. There was a coupon offering extra large shrimp for $5.99 a pound no limit. I decided to take advantage of the offer and bought 6 pounds. I was eating their shrimp for days. Casey's will steam and season your shrimp order for free. As the shell is still on the shrimp, in my opinion, it is questionable how much seasoning flavor you'll get. Also, you will have to peel the shells off the shrimp which is messy and tedious. Still, I found the shrimp tasty, of good size and I thought the price was good with the coupon. I believe they were on par with what Sam's Club sells as jumbo shrimp though I believe Sam's were peeled.

Overall, I thought Casey's a decent place. It isn't anything to go out of your way for unless you're really hungry for crabs you want to eat at home. They do have a convenient location in that they are close to the Maryland 198 and Maryland 32 intersection. The service was excellent and the prices reasonable. If you're looking for a good seafood store in Laurel, Maryland, you might want to give them a look. Cheers all!

Hectic Day

I had a hectic day yesterday. To help my boss out, I clocked in shortly after 6 a.m. at the Post Office where I work. I planned to case most of the mail on the route he'd assigned a sub who had never worked that route. If that sub wanted any chance of hitting the street at a decent time, I was going to have to case most of that route's mail. On top of that, one of our 1 day a week subs called in and said he was sick. Saturday is our worst day people wise. My boss told him he had to come in. He refused. My boss subsequently had to case a lot of that route's mail and delivered half of it himself incredibly. I offered to take a bump on that route and asked repeatedly for a particular part that I knew I could knock out quickly. To my annoyance, he gave that bump to another who didn't do jack to help him. The bump he did give me took me an hour and 40 additional minutes to get done vice the hour at most on the bump I wanted. He really knew how to show his gratitude. Don't expect me to help you out of a jam again boss.

After that, I had to dash home, grab my new motorcycle helmet and have a friend give me a ride to the motorcycle dealership to pick up my new scooter. I get there and, there is a line out the wazoo in their service department. Finally, I asked the salesman I've been dealing with to get the scooter for me. He does. We go over various items on a checklist he had. He shows me how to start the thing as well as how to put the scooter on and off its kickstand. I promptly forget both and have to ask him again how to start the thing and how to raise the kickstand. DUH! Finally, I hit the road with my new scooter and find out the timing is bad on it. It shows a nasty tendency to stall out while idling. Crap! I was nervous enough riding the thing for the 1st time without that problem. I managed to get the thing home and had to dash to my apartment to meet the guy that was going to set up my new laptop.

The technician that Installinc sent ends out being outstanding. He did a fantastic job. However, I got more bad news. The Dell salesperson I dealt with when I ordered my new laptop apparently didn't know what he was talking about. I can't use my present Sprint PCS connection card and the Soundblaster Xtreme soundcard at the same time. There is only 1 PCM1A slot in my laptop so I can only use one of the cards at a time. Aaargh! Worse still, My present connection card won't fit in my new laptop (I believe it had 54 pins and the card slot uses a 38 pin card) so I can't connect to the Internet on it. Damn! So, at a minimum, I'll have to get an adapter from Sprint so the card will fit in the slot. Researching PCS connection cards later, I found out the cards are going to USB ports. I wonder if the Dell salesperson assumed I had one of those even though I mentioned PCM1A specifically. I don't know. I do know I may end up buying a new card as Sprint is coming out with what they call the 4G (4th generation cards) cards which will use improvements they're making on their network. The improvements on the network will offer Wifi like speeds. The minimum download speed will be 2 megs and it has the potential to hit 16 megs! The downside is the new 4G card will set me back over $300 unless I sign a new 2 year contract in which case it will cost me $79. I plan to visit Sprint today after church.

So, I have my new scooter which I plan to ride around the neighborhood tomorrow. Later this week, I'll have to take the scooter back so they can put a brand new tire on it to replace the one they patched. I plan to have them fix the idling problem at the same time. Also, I have my laptop which I can use sort of though I'll have to get a new PCS connection card adapter or just buy one of the new 4G cards. I still have a lot of programs I'll have to download like Mozilla Firefox. It's a bit frustrating that 2 of the things I looked forward greatly to getting and spent big bucks on have been somewhat disappointing. Still, the scooter will get fully fixed in time and, I'll eventually have my new laptop set up the way I want it. In regards to the Post Office, I don't know that things will get better there. I'm getting fed up with being spit in the face after going the extra mile for them. We have some that do the minimum and, nothing is done about it. I big time want to leave there but, my spending ensures I have to stay so I can pay the bills for those items. Any chance I can get a bailout too? Cheers all!

Scooter Update

I finally made the last payment on my new Yamaha Vino Classic scooter a couple days ago. I've been looking forward to getting this scooter for some time. They seem pretty cool and, they get great gas milage. That's important with gas prices inching their way back up again. The dealership had one such scooter in the color I wanted. It had been shown on display outside the dealership. Apparently, while it was outside, some how the tire got a puncture which they had to repair. They also ordered an entirely new tire which will arrive in about a week. I wanted to pick the scooter up before the Memorial Day weekend as that'll be a great time to practice riding it in the neighborhood where I live. I called them yesterday and, they said it was ready to be picked up. When I arrived at the dealership, they told me they wanted to call me but, they didn't have my number. Somehow, the carburetor got messed up. They wouldn't be able to work on it till this morning. They assured me the scooter would be ready by this evening. I'm hoping I'll be able to get to the dealership this evening before they close. I'm scheduled to do a full route and, I agreed to help another sub who will be assigned to a route he's never been trained on the route he'll have to do today. I plan to go in around 6 a.m. and do my best to get that route sorted and cased so he can hit the street at a decent time. I may also have to deliver part of the route. Hopefully, I can get all that done, get back to my place and get a ride to the dealership thanks to a friend who agreed to take me. If that didn't promise to make my day hectic enough, a Dell rep is going to come up and transfer some of my files, set up my email program and my Internet connection on my new laptop. I received that Wednesday. It's a very nice looking computer. I wasn't super impressed with all they promised they'd do but, I'd paid for the service so I might as well use it. We'll see how that goes. Stay tuned for more updates. Cheers all!

$20 An Hour

I got floored by something today. My Postmaster called everyone together for a short meeting. He announced that they were going to hire 5 new temporary city substitute carriers. These 5 were out of 10 that showed up for interviews. That's no big deal. What is astonishing is that 25 people were scheduled for interviews. You say what's so big about that. This is for a job that requires no prior experience, no degree, you'll get on the job training and get paid during that training and it pays $20 an hour! I haven't seen too many jobs out that pay that kind of money with no prior experience or degree. Also, remember the economy is seriously stinking right now so you would think that people would just at such a job. It floors me that less than half of those that were scheduled showed up. While the Postal Service is in a load of hurts, you can still make good money there right now. I know this from personal experience. Those people who didn't show up for those interviews missed a chance to make some good money. Cheers all!

Reminder

I wanted to remind any readers I have out there that First Class letter rates went up 2 cents on May 11th. Last week, I saw some letters/bills that got sent back to their senders because they had insufficient postage i.e. 42 cents vice the correct 44 cents. The Postal Service will kick a letter/bill back to you for 2 lousy cents. This could cause you to be late with a payment causing you to have to pay interest on whatever. So, please make sure you use the new postage rate. Cheers All!

Payday

The past week has been a real grind at the Post Office. I got a lot more hours than I wanted. Thanks to that, I did get a nice paycheck this payday. The money will come in handy with the scooter, laptop and optional excursions I plan to do this summer with Globus. Still, the money was hard earned. I will definitely feel I earned this summer's tours as well as the scooter and laptop. Hopefully, after next week, things will slacken some and, I'll get some free time. We'll see. For now, I'll enjoy the fact it's payday and, I've got my hard earned cash. Cheers all!

Reminder - Postage Increase

A reminder to my readers out there, the cost of mailing a letter First Class goes up 2 cents today. Also, if you mail a letter that isn't machinable, the surcharge for that has gone up 3 cents i.e. it now costs an extra 20 cents to mail such items. Lastly, the cost of mailing a regular postcard has gone up 1 cent. Please make sure you use the right postage. I have seen the Postal Service send stuff back for a lousy 2 cents. Or, they've had the carrier try to collect the 2 cents postage due.

The Mall In Columbia

I finally got to visit The Mall In Columbia today. I've been wanting to go there for a while but, after a hard day's work at the Post Office, the last thing I'd feel like doing was drive down there. I decided today would be the day. I'd drive there after church which is what I did. The Mall In Columbia is a nice mall. It isn't as enormous as Arundel Mills Mall but, it has a nice feel to it. It's anchored by Sears, Macy's, Penney's and Nordstrom's. My favorite shop there is Today's Pet. Every time I go there, I check out the puppies they have. I always look to see if they have a Pug puppy. I still dream of getting one some day. I didn't see any Pug puppies. They did have a nice dachshund and some cute kittens.

I saw a few new stores though none grabbed my fancy. I'm still holding off spending the money barring ordering my new laptop. I still plan to pick up my new scooter sometime the end of this month. I did treat myself to a smoothie at American Cookie. The smoothie wasn't as good as it usually is there. I held off buying anything to eat as I planned to stop by Casey's Crab Co which I did afterwards. I'll blog about another time.

Overall, I enjoyed checking the mall out though I didn't buy anything. It was nice to see it again after not having been there in months. If you live some where close to Columbia, Maryland, you might want to check it out. Note: if you have kids, there have a carousel kids can ride on though they do charge for it.

New Laptop

I ordered a new laptop yesterday from Dell. I held off initially because it looked like they weren't offering the 12 months interest free credit. I emailed their financial services folks and, they assured me they were offering that. Once I knew I'd have 12 months to pay the new laptop off, I set about figuring out what I wanted in the thing. My first requirement was a big screen. The M1730 comes with a screen that is 17 inches across diagonally. Second, I wanted a super big hard drive as I'm saving lots of music and photo files on my laptop. My new laptop will have an incredible 500 gigabyte hard drive. When I ordered my current laptop 5 years ago, the best I was able to do was an 87 gigabyte hard drive. Prices on RAM have apparently gone down since I ordered my last laptop as I'll be getting 8 gig of RAM vice the 1.1 I received on my current laptop. I'll also get a 1 gig video card and lojack service with my on site warranty program. An extended warranty was an absolute must. I should be able to extend the warranty on the new laptop another year so I'll be good for 5 years like I have been on my current laptop. Interestingly, with all the dramatically improved bangs and whistles, my new laptop will cost over $500 less than my current one. The amount would be more but, I opted for the service where they come in and transfer all my files and programs from my current laptop to the new laptop. This is especially important with my Sprint PCS card software and card.

I should actually receive my new laptop sometime close to the end of the month. Dell will keep me informed when it actually ships. I'll be excited to get my toy and, I'm curious to see how much better it performs vice my current laptop. To be honest, I think my current one is fast enough. As I stated previously, the main reason I'm replacing it is my fear my current one would go on the fritz. Without a warranty, that could be very expensive to fix and there wouldn't be any guarantee I'd recover all my files. It's taken me some time transferring my music files to my laptop. Also, it would be a royal pain to have to reload my photo files. I do plan on getting an external hard drive so I can move photo files that I don't look much at but want to save electronically. Sam's Club and Costco have good prices on those.

So, that is the latest update on my future laptop. It should be a cool machine. I'll let my readers know when it actually arrives. Cheers all!

Glass Pen

I forget when I bought my glass pen from Nostalgic Impressions. I know it's been sitting on my living room table for at least 5 months. I'd previously tried some wooden pens with metal nibs and, the nibs proved to be of poor quality. They didn't hold hardly any ink and one actually splayed. I forget how I heard about glass pens but, I decided to try one so I bought one from Nostalgic Impressions. After buying it, as I said, it sat on my table unused until today. I saw it and remembered I'd never tried it to see if it wrote well or not. I decided to try it. To my surprise, the pen writes very well. The nib on it manages to hold enough ink to write at least 6 or seven words before you have to dip it again in the inkwell. The pen itself looks very nice. The only fault I can find with it is it seems fragile. I held the pen carefully as I didn't want to accidentally break it. Barring that, I was very pleased with it and, I plan to use again sometime when I want to knock out a fancy letter to a friend. It would be neat to write a letter that way. Cheers all!

Quiet

It's been quiet at my end of the woods. I haven't been doing anything exciting because I've been trying to save the money so I can pay off the scooter I'm in the process of buying. I paid $1,100 on that this past Tuesday. I still owe $1,070. I should have that paid off later this month. I'll be glad to finally get the thing and see what it's like to ride it. I found out that scooters can depreciate just like cars can. If I do decide to trade the thing in down the line for a bigger better scooter, I can expect to lose around $550 in depreciation in the first year (about a 1/4 of its initial value). Crap! Also, to my surprise, there is a value book put out on scooters by NADA. I found out about that from a friend at the Post Office. I didn't know there was such a thing. Scooters are sublisted under motorcycles in the book.

The Post Office continues to be filled with drama. For some reason, upper management has repeatedly visited the Post Office where I work. They seem to be looking for every little possible error. This is annoying as I have enough to worry about with trying to deliver the mail correctly and in time. It's anybody's guess what is going to happen to the Postal Service itself. The upper management folks keep saying we're going to run out of money. They say we're not bringing in enough. That's possible. I have definitely seen a drop in mail volume. Part of it is technology and part of it is the piss poor economy. I repeatedly receive notices from my credit union asking wouldn't I like to go to paperless statements. They even offer to put in for a drawing for a cash prize. I decline in part because of my job at the Post Office and in part because I like receiving a hard copy from them. I'm especially leery of going paperless with bills as it is very easy to forget an email notifying me of an upcoming payment. It's harder for me if I have something in paper I can see reminding me. The bad economy makes me leery of spending the money I earn. Especially, when I'm sure what is going to happen with my job at the Post Office.

I continue to slog away at my stories about my Egypt trip for the Globus exchange travel stories website. To my surprise, my last story which was about the day excursion to Alexandria received a superior rating. I liked that. I suspect I got that because I did some research which I included in the story like when Alexandria was created by Alexander the Great and some of the gods that had been worshipped at the Serapeum (temple complex) in Alexandria. I'm working on my next one about our visit to Saqqara and Old Memphis.

I finally finished off the boneless wings I bought from Cluck-U. I found them good. I'm pretty certain they weren't wings at all but, breasts coated like buffalo wings. While they were more expensive then the regular wings, you do get a LOT more meat with them. I thought the honey hickory flavor was good. I'd like to try the Caribbean jerk flavor and see if that is any good. We'll see on that.

Lastly, I've decided I'm going risk it (see previous comment about job insecurity) and order a new laptop at the end of this month from Dell. My current one is running fine but, it is getting old and the warranty is going to expire on this month. That scares me. I don't want any computer problems which I'd have to pay for. While I haven't had any major ones with my current Dell laptop, I'd like to play it safe and have a computer that is something goes wrong with it, they HAVE to fix it and pick up the tab. I haven't forgotten how expensive ($400) it was to replace the motherboard on my first laptop (a Sager). I plan to go with Dell again as the laptop I bought from them has had so few problems and their tech support has been great when there were glitches. I feel they're reliable. Also, Dell is offering a nice deal on certain models where I can get 12 months interest free credit. I'm certain I can pay the new laptop off in 12 months. I'll be excited to get the new laptop as it'll be a neat new toy I can play with. One thing I have found true is that as I've gotten older, my toys have gotten more expensive. Oh well.

That's all from my end of the woods. I think you can see why I'm not posting much. There isn't anything terribly exciting to blog about. I will have some neat future adventures to blog about in mid-summer. That's when I go on back-to-back tours with Globus. I can't wait to do that. I'm counting the days. I hope all is well with you reader of my blog. Take care and God bless.