Update on My 2009 Yamaha TMAX

I thought it was time to post an update on my 2009 Yamaha TMAX as I've given their touring windshield and wind side deflecters a decent try out on the bike.

One of the things I noticed with my TMAX at higher speeds is considerable wind noise. It really roars when you ride 80 miles an hour plus. Yamaha claims that their touring windshield for the TMAX significantly reduces wind noise. After giving the windshield a good tryout, I can affirm that Yamaha wasn't lying. The windshield does make a big difference in that area and, it also cuts down on some of the buffeting you'll take at higher speeds. In my opinion, the touring windshield is worth the $224.95.

I can't say the same for the side wind deflectors. I haven't noticed that much improvement from them to make it worth the $199.95 Yamaha charges for them. Another thing those considering buying these 2 accessories should consider is the cost of installing them. I got a bit of a surprise when I got the labor bill from Heyser Cycle. It cost me $255 to get them both installed. Still, I think the touring windshield is worth it.

There are 2 things I wish Yamaha would do something about on the TMAX. First, I wish they would come out with a better seat for long rides. After about an hour of straight riding, I've found myself trying to find a softer spot on the seat and, there ISN'T one. Second, I wish they would come out with something to deflect the wind around the handlebars of the bike. This would help considerably when riding during the winter. I've looked with envy on the various Harley glide bikes as they offer good hand protection from the wind during the winter. The only solution I've come up with so far is wearing electrically powered heated gloves. These help some but, the batteries don't stay charged forever. I know there are gloves that will hook up to the bike's battery but, I'm very leery of doing that.

Another issue I thought I'd blog about is the 2011 TMAX. Yamaha finally released details on it sometime recently. I can't say exactly when as I wasn't checking their website every day for the info. Yesterday, I did find out they'd posted details on the 2011 bike. To my disappointment, I didn't notice any great improvements over the 2009 and 2010 models. The only differences I could see was a different color - the 2011 will come in what they call Raven which is another word for black and, the 2011 will cost an extra $100. Because of this, I was glad I pushed to buy my 2009 TMAX as that means I saved even more money buying one of those vice a 2010 or 2011 model.

Lastly, I noticed that Yamaha will be getting rid of its Majesty scooter in 2011. The Majesty is a scooter that is one step down from the TMAX. It has a 399cc engine vice the TMAX's 499cc. It advertised that it could hold its own on the highway just like the TMAX but, it doesn't have anything like the TMAX's sporty looks or presumably its handling. I suspect Yamaha decided that the Majesty was some what redundant and, I think they're right. With the TMAX, there really isn't any need for the Majesty bike.

Update January 26, 2014:

As I've been getting some hits on this post, I thought I'd post a little update to it. First, as any followers of Yamaha know, Yamaha came out with a new 400cc Majesty bike in 2013 at least. I don't know if they came out with it sooner than that. To me, the Majesty looks very much like a scooter. One thing that is nice about the TMAX is it doesn't. It looks like a sports motorbike. Ironically, the 2011 TMAX was the last TMAX to be offered in the United States (U.S.). I haven't found anything indicating Yamaha plans to issue the updated TMAX in the U.S. like they have in Europe and Canada. One reason may be they have a harder time selling the bigger engine scooters in the U.S. That was one reason a friend at Heyser Cycle mentioned and, it may be true. I read a nice article about the updated TMAX on Motorcyclist. Here's a link to the Motorcyclist TMAX article. I still wish Yamaha would issue a TMAX with a larger size engine. An extra 30 cc's isn't worth trading in my 2009 TMAX. Another upgrade I was able to have done to my TMAX which helps in the winter is heated hand grips. (These are standard on the new BMW maxi-scooters, a nice feature.) I forget who manufactures the kit. One downside to the upgrade is I have to make sure I turn the heater off before I turn the bike off. Otherwise, they'll continue to draw on the battery. The Shorai battery I had installed continues to be a good investment as I haven't had any dead battery problems since (knock on wood). I believe I have over 14,600 miles on my TMAX now and, I continue to be pleased with it. As soon as a bunch of the snow melts we received recently in Maryland, I'll be putting some more miles on my TMAX. Happy riding all!

TMAX Update

Today, I rode my TMAX again. I've put nearly 3,000 miles on it now. The bike continues to perform great. I'm pleased that I'm definitely getting better riding it. Remember, I've only been riding any kind of motorbike for 14 months now. I'm not so frightened by the loud noise of the wind and the buffeting you take when you go 70 mph plus. I ordered the touring windshield and side wind deflectors for my TMAX. They're in and, I hope to get them installed this Thursday. I'll post an update on what if any difference they make in regards to noise and handling. Also, I'm keeping an eye out for what the 2011 TMAX is going to be like. Will there be any difference between it and the 2010? I keep my fingers crossed that Yamaha will come out with a 750cc TMAX. I think that would be seriously cool. Plus, a 750cc TMAX would seriously fly. So far, there have only been rumors of that. I haven't seen anything definite from Yamaha. But, I keep hoping Yamaha will make one. We'll see.

Baltimore Update

I got to visit Baltimore's Inner Harbor today. I rode my TMAX in and to my surprise, I found a parking space about a block from the Hard Rock Cafe. Parking was $2 an hour with a maximum stay of 2 hours. However, I doubt anyone would check if you ended up staying longer. As I came into the harbor area, I noticed there was a large warship tied up at one of the piers. It turned out to be the Brazilian training ship NE Brasil. The ship is supposedly 427 feet long so it is a good size ship. During its visit, they'll be offering free tours at set times and dates. I don't happen to know those. After looking over the ship, I walked back to the Hard Rock Cafe where I had a nice lunch and looked over their rock memorabilia collection. They have a bust of rubber hips Mick Jagger, a number of guitars including one by the rock group Slaughter, they had the shoes worn by Olivia Newton John in Grease, a movie poster from Elvis Presley's movie Girls! Girls! Girls! as well as other stuff. I bought one of the cafe's signature t-shirts. This one is from the rock group The Who and helps support the City of Hope which does research concerning cancer, diabetes and HIV/AIDS. 15% of the purchase price goes to that foundation. After lunch, I walked by the ESPN Zone on the way back to my bike and to my surprise, I found out it had closed on June 16th. It seems it and a number of other ESPN Zones had closed for reasons unknown to me. As it was in a prime location in the Inner Harbor, I wouldn't think it'll be long before some other big name restaurant moves in. We'll see on that. That's all for this update. Cheers all!

New Today's Pet Store Opens in Elkridge Maryland

Today, I stopped by the Gateway Overlook Mall. I knew there was an Office Depot there and, I needed to buy some more rubber bands for work. Mail carriers at various post offices use a lot of rubber bands to bundle mail so they can keep it in order until they deliver it. 2 stores down from the Office Depot is the new Today's Pet store (right next to the Costco). I found out the new store opened just yesterday. The store didn't seem terribly wider than their old store at The Mall in Columbia. It did look like they had a good selection of tropical fish as well as rats, gerbils, hamsters, parrots, kittens and my favorite puppies. As luck would have it, they had a cute Pug puppy. He/she looked particularly cute. I still hope to get a Pug puppy some day. First though, my job at the post office has to get more predictable before that happens.

Overall, I thought Today's Pet's new store nice though I think the previous location at The Mall in Columbia was cooler. From what I understand, the new location will offer more services than the previous one. If you want to visit just Today's Pet, the new store location will be easier as you won't have to walk through a mall to get to it. I plan to visit the new location from time to time to check out the puppies. Some day, I hope to get one. Cheers all!

Update November 17, 2022: A Maryland law according to the sales people at this store makes it illegal for a store to sell puppies 🐶. I was saddened to hear this as I really enjoyed checking out the puppies at this store. I don't know when the law went into effect.

Update July 19, 2025: This store has sadly 😥 closed. I wonder if they were unable to compete with Petsmart.

New Bicycle

Today, I picked up my new 24-speed Schwinn bicycle from A&M Cycle. The bike looks nice. I had a bit of a misadventure getting it home. I'd planned on taking the front tire off the bike, stowing the rest of the bike in my car's trunk and the front tire in the front seat. To my surprise, the bike sans front tire was too big to fit in the trunk or the back of my car. I ended up buying a bicycle carrier so I could get my new bike home. I haven't ridden the bike yet as by the time I finished dinner, it was getting late. I hope to ride for the first time tomorrow and see how it does. It promises to be interesting as there have been some changes since I had my last 10-speed. The gear shifters are on the handle bars and the brakes are next to the neck of the bike. There are 2 levers for each set of gears. 1 lever shifts up while the other shifts down. The man at A&M Cycle said the gear shifters are an improvement. We'll see. Stay tuned for more updates.

A&M Cycle

Friday, I visited A&M Cycle in Bowie, Maryland. I wanted to get a new Schwinn touring bicycle. The Schwinn website (http://www.schwinn.com/) stated that the only Schwinn dealership close to where I live was A&M Cycle in Bowie. You can buy Schwinn bikes at Target, Wal-Mart and other such stores but, the support you can get from such stores is questionable in my opinion. I doubt they're really going to know the bikes that well. A Schwinn dealership will know the bikes as the specialize in them. Why go with a Schwinn bike? In my case, because of the favorable impression I have of them already. As a kid, I had 2 Schwinn bikes. One was a regular Men's bike that my family called the Green Monster. It was green and big and damn near indestructible. It was a great bike. The other was my first ever 10-speed. It was fast and fun. Sadly, that bike taught me how important it was to have a lock and chain. I foolishly parked it but, I didn't lock it. I kept checking on it while I watch some friends play a video game. Apparently others were watching the bike too and decided to steal it. I quickly noticed my bike was gone, ran out to where it had been and saw the thieves ride away on it. I never saw the bike again. I never forgot the hard lesson.

A&M Cycle's shop wasn't anything to impress. It wasn't super big and, it didn't have much of a selection. They did have a fair number of used bikes which didn't look that great but presumably were mechanically sound and possibly cheap. Another annoyance is they don't have a website so it was hard to find out the days and hours they're open. As far as I can tell, the shop is a 1 man operation. All those negatives said, the shop does have plusses. First, the man who runs the shop knows bikes. He knows how they should fit and, he knows how to fix them. This was important to me as I wanted to get a bike that would fit me and if I have any problems with it, they'll fix it. One of my major problems with buying a bike at Wal-Mart is I don't think they could fix the bikes they sell. Another plus about this shop is the guy running could tell me the advantages and disadvantages of the different bikes Schwinn sells. I was looking at 2 specific bikes - the World Tour DLX and the Le Tour. The Tour DLX is a touring bike. That means it is made for long rides or commuting and comes with the equipment for that such as fenders and a rack to carry stuff on. The Le Tour is a speed bike. It is made for fast cycling. The shop owner was able to explain the differences between the 2 bikes and aid me in which one to go with. Eventually, I put a non-refundable deposit down on a World Tour DLX. While the shop didn't have one in stock, bikes it special orders usually arrive in 2 to 3 days barring weekends. Mine should arrive by Wednesday of this week. Once it arrives, they'll check the bike and fine tune it. By next weekend, I should have my first ever 24-speed bicycle. It boggles to think of a bike having that many gears. Incredibly, the Le Tour Super has 30 gear settings! I don't know how much so many gears help. I'll find out when I start riding my new bike. It should be fun and, it should have one other major benefit - it'll be good exercise. I need to do more of that and cycling is a fun form of exercise to me. I look forward to riding my new bike. Stay tuned for more posts on this. Cheers all!

Today's Pet Store Moved To Gateway Overlook Mall

One of my favorite shops at The Mall in Columbia is Today's Pet. They're a pet store that sells a number of different kinds of pets. My favorite are the adorable puppies. I always check to see if they have any Pug puppies. I haven't given up on my dream of owning a Pug puppy some day. During my last visit to their shop, I was surprised to find out they're moving to a larger place at Gateway Overlook Mall. Gateway Overlook is a strip mall located in Columbia, Maryland off of Maryland 175 and 108 and just off the exit from Maryland 95. It has a fair number of stores including Costco, Best Buy, Office Depot and Trader Joe's. It has ample parking. The new store will offer a greater selection of pets and services however, I think they will lose a lot of walk in business. One plus to them being in The Mall in Columbia was they were easily seen and thereby attracted potential customers who were walking by. They won't get that kind of business at Gateway Overlook. People who shop there are going there purposefully to get whatever. Still, I look forward to checking out their new shop which will be located right next to Costco. Someday I'll buy a Pug puppy who I'll name Muggsy. It'll be pretty cool except when he craps in the apartment or home I'll have then. Then, I suspect I'll call him something less kind. Cheers all.

Back on the Internet

To my surprise, I'm back on the Internet. The middle of the week before last, I started experiencing unfathomable problems trying to connect. I'd had problems before with my Sprint U-300 USB modem but, I'd been able to overcome them - not this time. Apparently, my modem bought the big one for good for some unknown reason. Sprint's tech support did their dangdest to get the modem to work on my super duper Dell XPS laptop but, it wasn't having any of it. The tech wizards at the local Sprint store said the modem was fine but, I was never able to get to work on my laptop again. Sprint kindly sent me a new modem which showed signs of working except I couldn't get it to activate. Strangely, Sprint told me I needed a 3G/4G Internet plan for the new modem but, I didn't for my U-300 which is also 3G/4G. Explain that one to me. Anyway, Sprint did get the new modem to work and, knock on wood, I won't have to make anymore daily trips to Panera to get on the Internet. We'll see. Also, I'm counting my blessings on another score. I found out Sprint doesn't offer my unlimited Internet plan anymore. Now, the best you can do is for $70, you get 5 gigabytes of download. Every megabyte over that costs you 25 cents. I don't have any idea how much I download. That's why I went with the unlimited Internet plan years ago. I'm counting my blessings that Sprint has allowed me to keep the plan. I pity the folks who have to worry about how much they download. I know downloads for my Garmin GPS would be a killer. Anyway, now that I'm back on-line, look for more posts. I've got some catching up to do. Stay tuned. Cheers!

Laurel Maryland Panera Bread Cafe

Earlier this week, my modem apparently bit the dust. The tech support folks at Sprint did their best to get it to work on my new Dell XPS laptop but, it wasn't having any of that. To my surprise, Sprint is going to send my a new modem with the latest software. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the new modem will work. I had considerable problems with their U-300 modem. While waiting for my new modem to arrive, I've been using the free WiFi at the Panera Bread Cafe at 3301 Corridor Marketplace, Laurel, Maryland. The cafe is nice and, the free WiFi is really handy. Apparently, it is also very popular as I've seen a number of people in here with their laptops. I suspect the WiFi helps draw business in for Panera. I know it does from me. I don't buy a lot of their stuff but, I do make sure I buy something. I wouldn't feel right using their WiFi and not buying something from their cafe. I've been drinking a lot of their frozen lemonades. They're pretty good. That's all for this post. Cheers all!

Back from Ireland

I'm back from Ireland. I flew back Tuesday. The tour was very nice barring some disappointing hotels. Apparently, some hotels feel they don't need air conditioning. I beg to differ. Also, the Great Northern Hotel in Bundoran desperately needs a renovation. My room there was the worst of the hotels I stayed at during the trip. I'll have to post pictures I took of the peeling paint, stained wallpaper, cracked wall and shoebox size room.

Barring the hotel rooms, I enjoyed the tour. I saw lots of beautiful countryside, learned about Ireland and its people, feasted at an Irish medieval banquet, rode a jaunting car (it's like a wagon), clambered inside a mesolithic corridor burial mound, walked medieval walls in Derry, sang Irish songs in an Irish pub while drinking Irish ale, spent far too much money, met lots of wonderful people, took a fair amount of video and over 200 photos, and visited over 19 Irish towns and cities in 12 days. The tour covered a lot of territory. We drove over 1,100 miles.

The tour director Peter Dundon was outstanding. He really knew his stuff. He answered any question you could come up with on Ireland. Our driver Tony Dooley was a marvel. Some of the roads got pretty narrow but, he handled them with ease. Sometimes, there were some roads you didn't want to look down because they were a long way DOWN.

Overall, it was a good tour and, it reminded me how much I love to travel. While en-route home, I called my travel agent Joel Mills to start work on the next tour I'm going to take. That'll be Peru in mid-January 2011. It should be another awesome adventure. I can't wait. Stay tuned for some nice pictures of Ireland. Cheers all!

Vacation

Yesterday was my last day at work before going on vacation. It's hard to believe I won't have to work for 3 entire weeks. Work has been really crazy because of the manning. We don't have nearly enough people. My boss has hired 2 new subs that he hopes will complete training by the time I get back. 2 new people would be a big help. Working 6 days a week, week after week really wears you out.

In regards to my vacation, it's hard to believe I'll be in Ireland in a few days. I've looked forward to going for months. It should be an awesome trip that will create memories that will last a long time. My Ireland trip won't be the end of my adventures as I plan to see my Dad in Michigan once I get back from Ireland. I haven't seen him in a year and a half so I owe him a visit. I'm planning some special things while I'm there like visiting Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum. I remember seeing the museum as a kid. It was impressive. Also, I look forward to enjoying some White Castle hamburgers. My Dad calls them gut busters. I think their fun because you can stack them.

So my readers, stay tuned for some hopefully interesting posts over the next 3 weeks. I plan to see and do a lot of new and cool things. Cheers all!

Surprise

May of last year, I decided to buy myself a new Dell laptop. I couldn't extend the warranty anymore on the Dell laptop I owned and, I was concerned that it would eventually kick the bucket and possibly cost me a number of files I wanted to keep. When I received my laptop, I found out the Dell salesperson was mistaken about me being able to use my old Sprint cellular modem. It wouldn't fit into the card slot the laptop has as its made for cards with 28 pins and my card has 54. I looked into the various cellular modems Sprint offered and the U300 stood out. It was their latest and greatest. It was the wave of the future and offered the technology that Sprint would be going to eventually. I liked that as that meant I wouldn't have to buy another modem in the future. The biggest plus for the U300 was it offered WiFi like connection speeds in markets where the Sprint cellular system had been upgraded. The sounded really cool and, the modem uses a USB port. I decided to buy it.

Once I received the modem, I promptly installed the software as the manual said. It was then that I ran into problems. There was clearly some kind of problem. I contacted Sprint and, they tried to help me solve the connection problem with the new modem. I ended up going to the Sprint store in Laurel where they tried to help me to no avail. It turned out the WiFi like technology in the modem had a major conflict with the WiFi technology in my laptop. The conflict was preventing the modem from connecting to the Internet.

My old laptop didn't come with WiFi. When WiFi became more widely available, I decided to try it and bought a card that would enable me to connect to it. The necessary software came with the card and, both worked really well. I was seriously impressed with the connection speeds I was able to get. It turned out the fact my old laptop didn't have WiFi built in was a blessing as I was able to uninstall the software enabling my new U300 modem to work. Unfortunately, the WiFi was built-in on my laptop. I decided to keep on using the old laptop and figured I'd take the modem and new laptop to Best Buy's computer wizards sometime and get them to fix the problem. I suspected they would have to disable the built-in WiFi.

Around Christmas 2009, Sprint came out with a major upgrade for the U300 software. I downloaded the software to disc which turned out to be a very good move. I hadn't taken my laptop to Best Buy yet and, I planned to install the upgrade on my laptop though I didn't think the upgrade would make any difference so I didn't install it immediately. Forward to this month, my trip to Ireland is coming up and, the trip would be an excellent time to take the new laptop and modem to Best Buy to get them to fix the problem. Why? Because I won't be able to access the Internet on my laptop there so I'll be leaving it behind. I figured 2 weeks would be plenty of time for them to fix the problem. In anticipation of taking the laptop to Best Buy, I installed the upgrade. To my total surprise, my new (now 1 year old) laptop promptly connected to the Internet! Apparently, Sprint did find a way to make the WiFi technology in their new modem compatible with existing WiFi. The upgrade gives the U300 user the choice of connecting to a WiFi network or connecting to Sprint's network. It even locates the closest WiFi signals and shows how strong their coming in so the user can presumably pick the best WiFi signal. I hope to test the WiFi part of the software some time. I remember Serotonin saying Panera offers free WiFi access. I've been meaning to try out one of their restaurants and, that would give me a chance to see how well the WiFi works. We'll see on that. For now, I'm finally getting to use my super duper speed machine laptop and access the Internet. It may be just in time too as my old laptop is showing signs that it may be going just as I feared it would. Cheers all!

Medical Hair Restoration Clinic Closes

When I visited the Medical Hair Restoration clinic in Chevy Chase, Maryland this month, Dr. Varona said the clinic would be moving to new offices not far from their present location. It turns out that wasn't the actual situation. The company Medical Hair Restoration was bought by the company Aderans in 2007. Aderans also owns the company Bosley which also specializes in hair restoration. This year, Aderans decided to combine the 2 companies in order to get various efficiencies and streamline their operations. Example: instead of having a Medical Hair Restoration clinic and a Bosley clinic the Washington D.C. area, they would have just one clinic. Also, Aderan decided to go with the Bosley brand though I confess I never heard of that brand. I guess they thought it had better recognition. Anyway, all Medical Hair Restoration clinics will be closing the end of this month and, their patients will be moved to the closest Bosley clinics. I'm saddened that the Medical Hair Restoration clinics will be closing as I've been very pleased with them. I know nothing of the Bosley clinics though I'll find out next year at the latest when I have to get my Propecia prescription renewed. That's when I will meet my new doctor Dr. Peter Morse. I may take a trip to the Bosley clinic later this year to get some of their shampoo which supposedly helps remove DHT. DHT is the hormone that causes hair loss. The shampoo might be helpful plus, I'd like to see their offices so I know where to get my prescription renewed. We'll see. That's all for this update.

Marine War Memorial

This is a photo I took of the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial next to Arlington National Cemetary. The memorial is a statue version of the famous Joseph Rosenthal photo of marines and a navy medic raising the flag at Iwo Jima during World War II. I got to see this great memorial for the first time during the Historic U.S. East tour I took with Globus last July. Due to the low light of my first visit, I didn't take any pictures of the memorial then. On November 1, 2009, I returned to Arlington so I could take some pictures of this memorial and visit the famous Tomb of the Unknowns which we didn't have time to see during the tour. This photo was taken then. Due to the cloudy conditions of the time, I did use Corel Photo Album 7 to lighten the picture to the one you see. I think it improved the picture. Concerning the memorial itself, I found it very impressive and moving. It is definitely worth seeing. Also, it is a fitting tribute to all Marines. Semper Fi to any Marine readers I might have. Cheers all!

Prescription Renewal

This past Monday, I made me yearly trip to the Medical Hair Restoration Clinic in Chevy Chase, Maryland. I needed to see Dr. Jonathon Ballon to get my Propecia prescription renewed. Propecia is a hormonal drug which blocks a certain male hormone that affects the hair follicles on men's heads. By blocking the release of a certain hormone (I don't remember its name), the hair follicles stay active and, men taking the drug are able to stop going bald as in my case. According to the folks at the clinic, the drug is 90% effective of those who take it. The drug does have one potential bad side effect in that in 1 of 250 cases, the man taking the drug will lose the ability to perform sexually. However, if that happens, I think you can take another drug (Viagra?) for that.

Anyway, I called the clinic for an appointment and found out Dr. Ballon is no longer with Medical Hair Restoration. I don't know why he left though I was saddened to hear he did. He was a very nice doctor and easy to work with. Dr. Christopher Varona has taken over for him at the clinic. Dr. Varona was kind enough to fit me into his schedule. My appointment was at 2 p.m. though I showed up early. I left early to make sure I made my appointment. I wasn't sure how long it would take me to reach the clinic. You can never be too sure about traffic in Washington D.C. and its outskirts. I played it safe and arrived early.

Dr. Varona reviewed my medical file and could see the Propecia was working. As I still have too much hair to need transplants (thankfully considering what that costs), all I needed was to take Propecia. He wrote me a new prescription and gave me 2 weeks worth of free samples which was really nice of him (it saved me $42). As he wasn't going to make any money off my visit, I bought some of the hair vitamins the clinic sells so I could repay him for seeing me. According to Dr. Varona, the REVVup supplement WON'T cause new hair growth but, it WILL make the hair you have healthier. We'll see. The clinic was offering a special where the vitamins were a 1/3 off which was nice.

Dr. Varona informed me that the clinic would be moving from its current location 5454 Wisconsin Avenue to a new location close by. He didn't tell me why they were moving. As long as my Garmin GPS can find the new location, I wasn't concerned. My GPS was real handy in finding the clinic.

So, I'm set for another year as far as Propecia is concerned. I found Dr. Varona very nice and look forward to meeting him again next year. That's all for this post. Cheers all!

New Digital Camcorder

I found out from Sony's website that they had a store in Annapolis Mall. I was considering buying a Sony digital camcorder but, I wanted to be able to talk with someone who was knowledgeable about the things before I bought one. I had questions like how long would the battery last? How much recording time would I get with each model? How good was the sound quality? It can be difficult to find such answers on a website. Also, I simply like dealing with a real face for something like this. Buying a camcorder was a serious purchase and, I didn't want to get it wrong.

When I walked into the Sony store, I asked where the camcorders. I was directed to a specific counter and a salesperson named Adam came over to help me. It turned out he knew his stuff. He was able to answer my questions about the different models. Also, he was able to tell me about a special financing deal Sony was offering if you bought something that cost over $299. You wouldn't pay any interest as long as you paid the item off in 12 months. Adam figured out what my payments would be for the camera, long life battery and accidental damage plan. They came out to $168 a month. I could afford that and, I shouldn't have any problem paying the camera off.

After considering all cameras and options, I went with a Sony 240 gigabyte hard drive high definition handycam. The camera offers a number of advantages. The huge hard drive means I can record up to 29 hours of high resolution video. The camera has very good low light capability. The microphone features surround sound (I believe) but if that isn't sufficient, the camera has jacks where you can connect an external microphone. The camera offers both a viewfinder and LCD for recording and, the LCD enables to play back immediately whatever you record. You can take still photos with the camera so you wouldn't need to carry 2 cameras with you on a trip. The camera is light weight wise. One really pleasant surprise that Sony offers is 1 hour of free instruction in how to use the camera. What I would do in that case is call for a training appointment and show up for it. One of their trained staff would actually teach me how to use my new camcorder. I was really pleased with this. This would ensure I know how to use my camcorder before I go on my Ireland trip where I don't want to mess up recording the various things I'll get to see.

So far, I'm pretty pleased with my purchase. Once I got home, I started charging the battery that came with the camera and the long life battery. Some time this week, I plan to take it outside and start trying to record some stuff. I might record something on my TMAX. I would be nice to able to show my Dad my bike. We'll see. Stay tuned for updates on this. Cheers all!

Journey's Edge Digital Weather Station Review

It's said you get what you pay for. I was reminded of this axiom after I got what I thought was a deal on a Journey's Edge Digital Desktop Weather Station. A seller on Ebay was offering the item for $8 including shipping. The item is supposed to give a 1 day weather forecast as well as serve as a clock and alarm clock. As I carry mail for the U. S. Postal Service, it is important to me to know what the weather is going to do so I can be prepared for it. A weather station for $8 sounded like a great deal. It turned out to be a great dud. It seems the unit is stuck on partly cloudy. It has shown partly cloudy for the last 3 weeks even when there wasn't a cloud in the sky or when it was pouring down rain. After I noticed this problem, I did a little research on the Internet and found out this was a common problem with this gadget. I could return the unit for another one BUT, considering what it cost me, I don't think it's worth the hassle. I did learn my lesson from this gadget and subsequently bought a Bushnell 5 day weather forecast unit which I'll blog about another time. For now, I'd definitely wouldn't recommend buying the Journey's Edge Digital Desktop Weather Station. In my opinion, this thing is a big time piece of cheap junk. Cheers all!

Future Travel

While I've been slogging away at work and counting the days till I go on my long awaited trip to Ireland, I've also been working on other future travel plans. Some have been set in motion while others are still in the consideration phase. The one that has been set in motion is where I'll be doing a 5 day Western Caribbean cruise with Royal Caribbean. As I mentioned before on this blog, I don't care to go for a long spell again between trips. The trips help me deal with the stress at work plus, they make it worth putting in the long hours there. My next major trip will be to Peru which in January 2011 which is over 8 months away. That's a long time and, I decided to look for a short trip to tide me over till I went on that adventure. To my surprise, I found a nice deal with Royal Caribbean. They were offering a 5 day cruise balcony cabin for $588 per person. As I like having my own room/cabin, that meant $1,176 not including tax, gratuities and airfare. I thought that was very reasonable. Plus, the cruise visited places I've never been to before. I'll get to visit Georgetown, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico. Royal Caribbean has seriously awesome excursion out of Cozumel where you get to visit the Mayan city of Tulum. I was so pleased with this cruise that I booked it and paid for it fully. So, this is one travel plan that is a definite go.

The travel plan that is in the consideration phase is a Globus tour of Japan. Why Japan? Because of the fascinating history and culture. You have the legendary samurai and the battles that led to the creation of the Japanese Shogunate. I read James Clavell's novel Shogun and was enthralled by it even though it was a SERIOUS read (over 1,200 pages). Culture wise, you have the beautiful gardens which are places of reflection and calm unlike western gardens. Also, there is really cool bullet trains (I like trains) and the airs of the orient. There are the fascinating temples and Torii gates. I think it would be something to do a tour of Japan. The downsides I can see are the long flight to get there and the cost. A tour of Japan will likely be one of the most expensive tours I'll ever do. Still, it would be something to see the land of the rising sun. Hopefully, I can make it happen next year. We'll see. Stay tuned for more travel updates. Cheers all!

Book Review

The second book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is called "The Sea of Monsters." Percy's satyr friend Grover is trapped by the evil cyclops Polyphemus and will become a meal for the cyclops unless Percy and his friend Annabeth rescue him. To complicate things, the magical defenses around Camp Half-Blood are failing and, it's thought finding the Golden Fleece might restore them. That requires a quest which Percy is willing to go on but, he doesn't get chosen to go. Percy has to decide whether to disobey the camp director Dionysis (the god of wine and madness) and try to find the fleece anyway and possibly get barred from ever returning to camp. If that wasn't enough for our stalwart hero, the traitorous half-blood Tim continues to aid the Titan King Kronos is his big to return and overthrow the olympian gods. All these different story lines mean lots of action while Percy continues to discover new powers he didn't know he had. It's a fun romp with some humor thrown in. Percy runs into Blackbeard the pirate who it turns out was a son of Ares. Percy and Blackbeard escape the sorceress Circe and Blackbeard with some of his crew ends up trashing Circe's spa like home.

Overall, the book was another fun read. The story moved along easily and threw in plenty of surprises to keep me from getting bored with it. Like the first book, it wasn't overly long. The second book comes in at 279 pages. The book's author Rick Riordan does a clever job of ending the book with another cliffhanger which made me want to get the 3rd book "The Titan's Curse" to find out what happens next. I'll review that book in another book review. Like the first book, barring the very young who wouldn't know anything about the Greek gods, most ages should enjoy the second book. It does a fine job of continuing the various storylines and helping us learn more about our heroes in the story. I would definitely recommend this book for those who liked the first one or are into Greek mythology. It is a very good read. Cheers all!

Dave & Buster's

Dave & Buster's extended their half price games promotion till the end of the month. I decided to take advantage of it and drove out to the Arundel Mills Dave & Buster's this past Wednesday. I ended up having a really nice time. My timing on Spin & Win was more on than usual and, I ended up winning over 19,000 tickets. This took my total to just over 300,000. People asked me what I intended to get with all those tickets. I still don't have anything absolutely in mind. I am considering the Sony digital camcorder they have. It would be nice to take some video of Ireland on the Ireland trip. I wish I'd done that on the Egypt trip but, it would mean taking 2 cameras which is a bit of a hassle. Plus, how quickly would I fill up the video card on the camcorder? I'd have to take extra batteries and cards for the thing. It's those issues which have caused me to hold off for now on buying one or using my tickets at Dave & Buster's. I hope to visit Dave & Buster's one more time before the half price games promotion expires again. I suspect they won't bring it back again until the summer. It is a nice deal which can make it somewhat affordable going there. That's all on my latest visit there. Cheers all!

NOTE: Since I posted this entry, Dave & Busters have extended the half price games promotion through the summer. I think this is seriously awesome and hope to make it down again once I get back from my Ireland tour.

Personal News Update

When I spoke with my friend Harvey recently, he pointed out to me that I haven't been blogging very much. The reason for that is very simple, there hasn't been much to tell. I've been working my ass off at the post office where I work. I haven't had time for much else barring an occasional ride on my TMAX super scooter. Work continues to be big time messed up due to our lack of manning. My boss is still trying to get by using subs from other post offices. Sometimes it works out and, sometimes it most definitely doesn't. When it doesn't, the crap really hits the fan. My boss is trying to fix the situation but, it takes a long time for the post office to hire new people. In my case, it took over 4 months from the time I took rural carrier associate test till I showed up at my assigned post office. All the work has helped me earn some awesome paychecks but, it has also left me very tired and stressed. Because of work, I can't wait to go on my future trip to Ireland (less than 60 days away now). I bought a Rick Steve's DVD that covers Ireland and Scotland. I've watched the 4 episodes he did on Ireland and, it looks really beautiful over there. I tried some Guinness and Smithwick's ale to get in the spirit for the trip. I didn't care for the Guinness and, I thought the Smithwick's was all right. Concerning the trip, I have to try very hard to be patient. It isn't easy with all the crap at work. I continue to enjoy my TMAX super scooter. It gets very good gas milage, has excellent acceleration and is very easy to ride. There isn't anyway I'd switch to a motorcycle. I very much like not having to change gears. It's one less major thing to worry about when I'm out riding. I do wish the seat were more comfortable. After about 90 minutes of constant riding, the seat starts to become a bit uncomfortable. Crosswinds on the bike still scare me a bit. Once I get back from the Ireland trip, I plan to get the touring windshield and wind deflectors for the bike. I hope they'll help with the wind and noise. Dave & Buster's brought back half priced games until the end of April. So far, I've been able to take advantage of that once. I won another 12,000 plus tickets playing Spin & Win. I have over 280,000 tickets now which is pretty cool. That's all to report for now. Cheers all!

Book Review

I'd seen advertisements for the movie Percy Jackson and The Olympians. While looking around at various books at the Laurel, Maryland Books-a-Million bookstore, I found the paperback edition of the movie. I read the brief synopsis books provide on the inside cover and, the book sounded good. I decided to buy it. I was glad I did. I found the book interesting in that it takes a different tack with the Greek gods (Zeus, Posidon, Hades, Ares, etc.). As Western Civilization moved west and the premier Western country became the United States, the story has it where the Greek gods moved west with civilization. Mount Olympus is located directly above New York City and Hades is located directly below Los Angeles (maybe the author doesn't like L.A.). The book's author Rick Riordan has other twists. The Greek gods are shown in very different and amusing forms vice the traditional way we would think of them. Ares is shown as a super muscular biker badass riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Zeus is shown in a very well tailored business suit and Posidon as a tan tie die t-shirt and sandals fisherman. The main character of the book Percy (short for Perseus) Jackson is a kid who is dyslexic, never knew his father (Posidon) and has constant bad luck which takes a major turn for the worse when the all sorts of Greek myths start to come life to his total surprise. This ultimately leads to him being chased by the Minotaur before successfully reaching Camp Half-Blood where Percy discovers he is a demi-god. Further along in the story, he finds out his father is Posidon. This brings up all kinds of issues for him as he struggles to deal with the knowledge and the wondering why Posidon never had anything to do with him. Also, Percy finds out this neglect is extremely common among other demi-god children.

I found some of the scenes in the book touching, others amusing (Riordan does thrown in humor at various points of the story) and the story has good action. The book moves along at a good pace so the reader shouldn't become bored with it. The paperback edition came in at 375 pages which isn't overly long. The first book is called "The Lightning Thief." It is part of a 5 book series, all of which have been published though the fifth book (The Last Olympian) is currently only available in hard bound. Standard price for the paperback editions is $7.99.

Overall, I found the first book a very nice read. So much so, I bought the second book "The Sea of Monsters" which I'll review another time. The books are aimed towards teenagers but, I think most ages would enjoy them (the very young wouldn't know enough about Greek mythology to understand all the references and characters in the book). If you want a light-hearted good fantasy read, "The Lightning Thief" may be for you. Cheers all!

Periodontist

This past Monday, I got to see my periodontist Dr. Ronnie Jones. It was for a routine check-up and cleaning. I have to see a periodontist because 2 years or so ago, I let the tartar build up get so bad, they had to de-scale my teeth. De-scaling is where a periodontist who is a specialist on gums goes down to each tooth's root and cleans out all the tartar and plaque build up which is infecting the gums and causing them to recede. If the gums recede enough, a person can start losing their teeth. This visit was a routine visit and lasted about 30 minutes. My check up results were mixed. I was doing all right on the front teeth but, I wasn't doing that great on the back teeth. There was a lot of build up too. Dr. Jones told me to see him again in 4 months. That way, the build up can be kept under control. It would help if I flossed more often. I'm still not crazy about doing that though I thought I did a better job of it this past 4 months. We'll see how I do this next 4 months. Cheers!

Ireland Tour Update

To my surprise, it seems Globus was on the ball and realized there was a conflict with my airplane reservations. Apparently, they realized there was no way I was going to make my connecting flight to Baltimore from JFK. To my relief, they didn't move me to a later flight that left JFK which would've caused a 4 hour layover on my way back. Delta decided to have me fly to Dublin from Atlanta instead. I'l gladly take Atlanta over JFK. I know I won't have any problems with my flights arriving or departing from there. The only down side to flying out of Atlanta is I'll have an 8 hour flight vice 7 to Dublin. Also, I wasn't able to get the extra night in Dublin before the tour started that I wanted. Apparently, I waited too long and, Globus released any extra hotel rooms they had with the Dublin hotel. I suspect I'll be one tired puppy for the group's first dinner. Lastly, I found out that the tour I'm on is for all effective purposes sold out. According to my travel agent, there is 1 seat left on the tour for the dates I'm going. I'm delighted the tour will be going. I've never forgotten when Globus cancelled the first tour I signed up for with them. However, we are going to have one packed bus. A full tour means 40 plus people on it. I'll be curious to what kind of mix we get. On the Canada tour I did, we had some Aussies, some Kiwis, some Brits, a few Canadians to my surprise and 2 couples from the Dominican Republic as well as a bunch of Yanks. People from other countries can make the tour kinda cool. It's interesting to hear of their experiences. If we do have some Aussies, I won't envy how long they'll have to fly to get to Ireland. I suspect they would have to fly something like 20 hours at least. It's over 10 hours flying from Sydney to Los Angeles alone. They will be really tired. We'll see. I'm hoping that I'll be able to enjoy some Victoria Bitter in Ireland. I first tried it in Australia and, it is a great brew. Sadly, we can't get it in the U.S. It would be great to knock back a few pints of VB. That's all for this update. Cheers all!

Oh Crap!

As my future trip to Ireland gets closer, I've been checking on things concerning it. Today, I checked on the flights I'll be taking. To my shock, I found out Delta moved the flight I'll be taking to Dublin 3 hours. That means, I'll have a 4 hour plus layover in New York JFK Airport. That sucks! It gets worse coming back. Because they moved the departing flight to Dublin 3 hours, they had to move the returning flight 3 hours. So, I find I now have 1 hour to get through customs at JFK and catch my connecting flight home when I return to the states. I don't think that's going to work. I'm pretty sure Globus will have to change my flight reservations. If all that news wasn't annoying enough, I found out my flight from JFK to Dublin will be 6 hours 55 minutes airtime. 7 hours is a long flight. Hm. Maybe, I should see about flying over a day early so I don't fall asleep at my tour's first group dinner. I checked into that and, it would cost $195 not including tax. I can handle that. It would be nice to have an extra day in Dublin. The tour doesn't spend boat loads of time there any way so, it wouldn't hurt to see more of that city. Now, I have to wait to find out from my travel agent what is going to have flights wise as well as will Globus penalize me if I add a day at the beginning of the tour. We'll see. Hopefully, I can and, I'll get to spend more time in Ireland. We'll see. Stay tuned.

Snow Update

This is an update to my last post on the heavy snowfall received in Maryland on Friday/Saturday February 5/6,2010. The snow stopped falling in Laurel, Maryland at approximately 4:15 p.m. I know this because I was shoveling out my car around 3:30 p.m. and, I could see the snowfall taper off to where it finally stopped when I went back in my apartment. People started digging their cars out after that.

Where I live, I got mixed luck plowing wise in my apartment complex. To my surprise, the maintenance folks were able to get through and did plow a path through the parking lot. However, they didn't come particularly close to the cars and, everyone had a 3 to 4 foot by 4 foot wide by 2 foot high plus pile of snow to dig out. This didn't include having to dig out pathways on the side of their cars. I got a royal workout digging out my car and helping some others who live in my complex.

I think a lot of people should be able to make it to work tomorrow. However, we aren't over the hump yet. The latest National Weather Service weather forecast (http://weather.gov) is predicting an 80 percent chance of snow/sleet Tuesday night and a 70 percent chance of snow Wednesday. Stay tuned for more updates. Cheers all!

Snow Update

Here is my first update on the snowstore that socked Maryland. The snow started falling sometime around Noon. Initially, it was very light and a lot of it melted on the roads. Around 4 p.m., the snow started falling more heavily and by 5 p.m., there was 2 to 3 inches of accumulation. The snow continued to fall heavily during the night.

I tried gauging how the snow was from my apartment but, my apartment windows were partly covered with it so, I bundled up and walked out into it. At 6 a.m., I found my apartment complex parking lot had at least 17 inches of snow. Some areas around my apartment building have 23 inches plus. I walked up to the Maryland 198 road to see if it had been plowed. It had though there was only 1 stretch that was passable. There wasn't any traffic on it at that time. A good wind was blowing that blustery at times. According to the National Weather Service (NWS) (http://weather.gov), there will be gusts as high as 35 mph today.

The NWS is predicting the snow will continue to fall heavily until this evening with the possibility of another 4 to 8 inches of snow. In my opinion, people should stay home and off the roads if they can. The conditions are really bad right now. Stay tuned for more updates. Cheers!

Snow Forecast

I'm not looking forward to work today. The reason for that is the weather forecast. Beginning around 10 a.m., snow is supposed to start falling and continue till possibly Noon tomorrow. It's forecasted that the area where I live could get between 17 and 27 inches of snow. This could easily become the worst snowfall I've seen here since I moved here in 2001. That much snow for this area (Maryland) would make a royal mess of things. Road crews typically don't start plowing the main roads till it stops snowing. Also, the apartment complex where I live have their maintenance people plow the parking lots. This is dependent on them being able to get in. If we get as much snow as forecasted, they won't be able to get in till late Saturday at the earliest. Also, where are they going to put all that snow? It promises to be a massive mess.

AND, things could get worse. I've heard they're forecasting we'll get hit with even more of the white stuff around Wednesday of next week. This is shaping up to be one of the worst winters in some in Maryland. Stay tuned for more updates as the weather progresses. Cheers all!

Map Updates

Yesterday, I found out there was a map update for my Garmin Nuvi 750 GPS. So, I started downloading the massive thing. It was 2.06 gigabytes and incredibly, the file was compressed. I don't have any idea how large it would be uncompressed. I didn't have to pay for the update as I'd bought lifetime map update downloads. It's cheaper that way but, you have to download them vice getting an easy CD or DVD (not sure which they use). My Internet connection isn't super slow but, it still takes a good while to download a 2 gigabyte plus file. After you download it, you have decompress it and install it on the unit. Installing the map update can take up to 2 hours. Overall, it is a bit of pain installing updates but, the unit has been really handy at times. It'll tell me how long it'll take for me to arrive at a set destination, when I need to make various turns and automatically recalibrate a new route if I miss a turn for whatever reasons. Also, it's handy when I get the itch to go exploring. I'll just drive down a road to see where it goes. More often than not, I get lost but, the GPS ensures I can find my way home. I've been very glad I bought the thing. Cheers all!

Leave

Yesterday, I submitted my leave form at the post office where I work. Leave at the post office is kind of an oxymoron in that I don't actually EARN leave there. I can't as I don't work an assigned route all the time or, I'm not a FULL time regular carrier. In actuality, I inform the post office that I won't be available to work for a certain period of time. During that time, since I won't work, I won't earn ANY money or other benefits. It's the biggest drawback for me taking time off. Still, I love going on my trips and the lost income is worth getting to see the awesome things I get to see. Also, the trips help me deal with the stress at the post office. During the trips, I get TOTALLY away from the crap at work. It rejuvenates me to where when I return, I'm ready to deal with the postal bs again. If it weren't for me buying my TMAX, I'd be going on some kind of tour either this month or next. As long as I can afford it, I plan to do 2 major trips next year. I can't wait to go on those trips. It's a lot of fun planning them and reading up on where I'll be going. Now that my leave form is submitted, that's one more thing done on my travel checklist. The time can't fly fast enough till I get to take LEAVE and go on my future trip to Ireland.

Peru

As any reader of my blog knows, I love to travel. I'm impatiently counting the days till I do a 2 week tour of Ireland with Globus. Also, I'm beginning to plan the tour that will follow that. That tour will be to Peru to see the wonders of the Incas. The tour includes a visit to the lost city of Machu Picchu. To me, it would be something to see a lost city. Plus, I've never been to South America. The closest I've been is Aruba and Curacao during my only cruise to the Caribbean. The only down side I can see to the trip is the long travel time. I checked and even with the fastest connections, it's going to take over 14 hours to get to Lima, Peru from Baltimore Washington International Airport. Because of that, I'm going to plan on spending an extra day in Peru to recover from travel fatique. I don't like starting any tour tired. I learned the hard way when I did Globus's Scandanavian tour that it can be worth having an extra day to rest when I arrive. I didn't do that during the Scandanavian tour and, I was repeatedly falling asleep during the first group meeting. I was seriously wiped. So, I'll give myself an extra day in Lima to rest and see some of the city on my own. Then, when the tour kicks off, I'll be bright eyed and ready to see new wonders and share them with the awesome people in our group. It should be a blast. Cheers all!

My First Bike Road Trip

This past Wednesday and Thursday, I did my first bike road trip. I've been wanting to show my friend Harvey my TMAX. Finally, after checking my work schedule at the post office where I work, I decided to ride down to Richmond to show him the bike. The ride would be the longest one I've done so far. I would ride for 135 miles. Also, it would be more challenging than I expected. Riding down to Richmond, I encountered rain 40 miles outside the city. The rain wouldn't let up till later that night. The second problem I encountered was it getting dark. That can create problems if I accidentally fog up the face shield on my helmet. At times, I've had it where I couldn't see outside my helmet.

Once I arrived in Richmond, I checked in with my friend Harvey. I briefly showed him the bike and then, I followed him to the hotel where I was staying. It was a Holiday Inn close to some Kroger Convention Center I think. The hotel was very nice and, I would enjoy my stay there.

Once I changed out of my riding gear, Harvey and I drove to an Outback Steakhouse restaurant he's eaten at a number of times. This would be my first time to eat at one of those. I'd heard good things about the restaurant chain and, it would live up to what I'd heard. Their bloomin onion was outstanding and, the porterhouse steak I ordered was excellent. Also, I got to try out a James Boag lager which is an Australian brand. It turned out to be a good lager and, I particularly enjoyed getting to have some real Aussie beer.

The next morning, Harvey and I had breakfast at the hotel's breakfast buffet. The buffet reminded me of previous buffets on Globus tours I've done. I can't wait to go on the Ireland tour I've signed up for. The buffet was good and, I was able to get very filled up.

After finishing breakfast, I gathered my stuff, checked out of my hotel room and loaded it into my bike. Then, I thanked Harvey for a nice time and told him I'd try to make it back to Richmond in a couple months. It's always a pleasure seeing him. After that, I got on my bike and started it up. I waved good bye and drove off to the nearest gas station where I tanked up the gas tank. After that, I hit the road and began my trip back.

The trip back ended up being pretty scary thanks to wind turbulence. At one point, my bike was shaking slightly sideways while I was going 70 mph plus. I found out that if I decreased my speed, it would reduce the turbulence. However, it made the ride back longer time wise. I wanted stop and hope the winds might die down but, the weather forecast was predicting things would get worse. It was supposed to start raining again around 3 p.m. I wanted to be home before that started. I ended up gritting my teeth and calming my nerves so I could continue the ride. After 2 hours 20 minutes, I made it home. I've rarely been so glad to see my apartment.

I thought about what I might be able to do differently on my next road trip. There were 2 things that came to mind. First, I could get a touring windshield for my bike. The windshield will supposedly reduce wind turbulence and noise. Second, I could buy some wind deflectors which should reduce wind turbulence around my legs and the middle section of the bike. Because of the Ireland tour and taxes, these 2 ideas will have to wait for 3 or 4 months. Once I get those 2 items, I hope to do another road trip to Richmond. It would probably be sometime in the summer. Hopefully, the nicer weather will make for a more enjoyable ride as well. We'll see. Cheers all!

Review on Bill Cosby CD

Last week, I listened to Bill Cosby's "When I Was Growing Up" CD. This is a review on it.

Bill Cosby remains one of my favorite comedians. His material doesn't seem to age. Plus, it's nice in that it doesn't contain any profanity or other nasty stuff. It's simply very funny and enjoyable to listen to. His CD "When I Was Growing Up" has a number of excellent pieces in it. In one of them, he tells of his attempts to hypnotize his brother Harold. During one such attempt, he sends his hypnotized brother in to smack his Dad. However, the scheme falls apart when Harold informs his father that Cos hypnotized him. Another hilarious one is where Cos tells of when he found a frog at camp. He puts the frog in his pocket. The frog makes normal frog sounds from his pocket. Cos gets the idea there is money to made here. He bets a friend 50 cents that he can make his left leg (the one with the pocket holding the frog) burp. He claims to made over $500 off kids at camp doing this. Cos later uses the frog in a prank on his Dad. While his Dad isn't looking, he slips the frog into his Dad's glass of milk. When his Dad reaches for the glass, the frog comes out of the glass surprising his Dad. His Dad ends up on the floor with the frog sitting on his forehead.

The CD has a total of 8 skits. It was recorded live at the Westbury Music Fair theater in October 1970. All the skits feature stories about Cosby's childhood vice other CDs which tells of his various misadventures as an adult and parent. The CD was Cosby's biggest hit during the 70's and, it's obvious why as it is extremely funny and poignant. Any listener will be taken back to their own childhood when things were a lot more fun and innocent. My only complaint with this CD is its length. It runs approximately 35 minutes. I big time wanted more stuff on this CD. 35 minutes isn't nearly enough of this great comedian and man. If you want to listen to something that will make you laugh and never grow old, you should buy Cosby's "When I Was A Kid." It is an excellent CD.

Gloves

I seem to be collecting gloves lately. I've bought 3 different pairs for riding my bike and, I bought another pair L.L. Bean gloves for the cold weather. Today, I ordered my 4th pair for riding when I paid for some battery powered heated Harley Davidson gloves. I decided to try those after some cheapo batter powered gloves I bought on Ebay turned out to be serious stinkers. They put out virtually no heat at all. The Harley Davidson gloves should do a lot better. If they don't, I'm definitely returning them as they cost $170 just for the gloves. They require $40 rechargable batteries for each of the gloves. With tax, the price tag came to $262! Ouch!

While my L.L. Bean gloves have done a great job of keeping my hands warm, they have 1 serious flaw - they're bulky. Because of that, I want to buy some Underarmour Men's Jonesy gloves. To my frustration, they're are currently unavailable. They seem to be selling as fast as they get them in the stores. I plan to call the Annapolis and Bethesda stores again to see if either have any extra large Jonesy gloves in stock. We'll see. Hopefully, that'll be my last addition to my glove collection. Cheers all!

Harris Teeter

I wanted to post something other than a post on the post office. Plus, I needed some place to go riding to on my bike. The Harris Teeter store I checked out is located at 8184 Westside Blvd in Fulton, Maryland by a development called Maple Lawn. The store in fairly new. According to the company website, the store was opened October 6, 2009. I'd passed by it a couple times on rides through Fulton. I'd never been to a Harris Teeter store so I was curious to see what it was like.

The store was of good store. According to the company store fact page, it has over 49,000 square feet. I know they had a number of aisles as well as good size produce department, deli counter, sushi counter and seafood counter. The store seemed a bit up scale in that it had cheeses from all over the world and, they have a wine consultant. As far as cleanliness, I found the store to be very clean and well organized. Prices wise, I can't say how they stack up compared to local Weis, Giant and Safeway supermarkets. I don't shop enough to be knowledgeable about food prices. One handy feature I found about the store is that it is open 24 hours a day. Also, for those who don't have time to shop, you can order your groceries from them on-line. They have your order ready for you when you stop in. I don't know if they offer delivery as well. The chain has a program called the Very Important Customer (VIC) card which gives special discounts on certain items and, it has an email letter offering further specials to VIC card members. On my trip to the Fulton store, I was able to save over $3 using the VIC card. That may not seem like much but, I only spent $23 there. I didn't need tons of groceries on this trip plus, I don't have tons of storage space on my TMAX.

Overall, I found the store to be very nice. I'd be very willing to shop there again. The people that work there were very helpful and considerate. Parking was adequate and the location is easy to get to. It's located not far from the Maryland 216 and 29 intersection. If you live the Fulton area, they're worth checking out. For those who live Columbia, Maryland, there is a store located in Kings Contrivance. Cheers all!

Bodies

Things remain really rough at the post office where I work. We are in a serious manning crunch. We need some new subs desperately. My boss had promised me today off to recoup. Regretfully, he couldn't keep his word because we had a second regular carrier call out i.e. let him know they couldn't work today. We were already down 1 route because of the regular who sprained their collarbone. Luckily, we had a sub from another post office who was able to cover that route. I ended up casing the 2nd route's mail. I don't know the route's mail case well at all and was horribly slow in casing the route's mail. At times, it was very frustrating. I couldn't find addresses I knew were on the route case SOMEWHERE. Plus, I'd already endured 3 days on another route that I'm not very good at and got kicked at. Monday, I was out till 8:40 p.m. delivering mail. Worse still, tomorrow, I get to deliver on a route I've NEVER cased and only delivered to in various pieces. Tomorrow will not be a good day.

To add insult to injury, we have another sub who it seems has an aversion to working in the cold and so, the sub hasn't worked for over 3 weeks now. I wonder what the heck this sub is going to do when they get their own mail route. Are they going to try to take leave for a month or more during the winter? It's really absurd. The kicker is we can't get rid of this sub. So, we have the sub on the books even though they're not working and who knows when they will finally return to work. Last week, this sub called in and asked what routes would need help. My boss foolishly told the sub and, the sub said they didn't care to work those routes. Since when does an employee get to pick and choose what work they do? It's really unbelievable and ties in with my first paragraph because if, we could get more bodies i.e. substitutes, this sub couldn't get away with this. My boss could let her sit at home till the cows came home. However, with us hurting so bad manning wise, this sub can play this game.

For me, I'm getting seriously fed up with the situation. I don't mind taking an occasional bump i.e. part of a route in addition to the route I'm assigned to BUT, I'm not prepared to do it regularly. Also, I don't think it's fair for me to be the ONLY sub at our post office to be on call i.e. have to come in at short notice. We've got to get more bodies i.e. subs. If we don't, down the line, I'll have to say enough. My job at the post office isn't critical. I can survive on my military retirement and the interest from the annuity my beloved step-mother left me. We'll see what happens. Stay tuned.

Contract

A friend at work recommended I read the contract that applies to rural mail carriers. I found out where it was located on the web and, I got a shock. The contract is 88 pages long and includes 14 memorandums of understanding. My eyes got glazed by some of the terminology in the contract. It can be very wordy at times. I learned some new things like the progressive levels of discipline in the Postal Service. However, the contract caused me come up with a number of questions like how many letters of warning do you receive before you get a 7 day suspension. Also, I wanted to find out the rules concerning calling out from work. I'd heard that you could call out for up to 3 days before having to provide documentation as to why you couldn't work. However, I found out from my shop steward that the supervisor MAY request documentation for 3 days or less. If you don't provide the documentation, your supervisor can charge you with absent without leave on your attendence record. Where is the section about absent without leave? Also, where does it state how many hours a substitute carrier can be made to work or that they must stand by their phone on days they're not scheduled to work in case they're needed on short notice. I suspect I'll have to ask my steward about all those. I'm learning the hard way about some of those issues. I'm also learning don't do your supervisor any favors. They won't help you. When push comes to shove, all your supervisor is going to care about getting their mail delivered. If you get messed over in the process, too bad. The more I work at the post office, the more I miss the Air Force. Believe me, it's a lot easier in the Air Force. You don't have the amount of bs that I've seen in the Postal Service. With all the bs, I've got to come up with an alternative plan to working at the post office. So far, I've failed come up with one but, I am really getting fed up with the place. Stay tuned for the next chapter in this messed up soap opera. Cheers all!

Chardonnay

Not wanting to post constant depressing post office tales, I thought I'd tell of my latest funny misadventure.

I tried to think of something special to do at midnight on New Year's. Finally, I decided to drink 1 of the bottles of wine I'd bought in France during the Globus La France tour I did in September 2008. These were the bottles that I discovered to my dismay I couldn't carry on board my flight back to the states and consequently had to buy another travel bag so I could pack them in my suitcase. I decided to drink the 2003 Chardonnay. I put the bottle in my fridge to properly chill.

I had a time uncorking the bottle. The reason for that is because the cork had dried out because I'd let the bottle sit upright so the wine wasn't touching it and keeping it somewhat moist. Finally, I managed to get the cork out and poured some of the wine into a wine glass I'd bought years ago and rarely ever used. I had to dust off the box when I pulled it off the shelf I'd stored it on. The wine to my taste was very good though I'm definitely not any kind of expert on wine. That was when I did something that turned out rather embarrassing. I proceeded to drink the wine like it was water. I drank the entire bottle (standard 750ml bottle) in about 25 minutes or less. Wine is not like water as this wine was 12.5 percent alcohol. Also, I apparently didn't have much in my stomach so there wasn't much to slow down my body ingesting the alcohol. In less than an hour, to my surprise, I was sloshed. I had to put my hand against the wall when I tried to walk and, I made a LOT of corrections in my typing as I tried to post things on the Internet. When I laid down to go to sleep, I was out like a light and slept like a rock.

It was kind of fun getting toasted as I haven't drank anything alcoholic in months (I think). The wine brought back very pleasant memories of the trip to France. It was a great trip. As I've mentioned before, I can't wait to go on another one. God willing, that will be in approximately 5 months. It seems like ages away. I may have an interesting alcohol adventure then as one of the optional tours is to a Guiness warehouse. I've tried Guiness. It tasted very yeasty. However, I've heard people swear fresh Guiness was the stuff. We'll see. Hopefully, I'll get to try some while I'm there (fingers crossed). Cheers all!

Survived

I managed to survive 4 days of doing a full route AND delivering an additional half route. However, the work took it toll. I'm seriously wiped. Worse still, I don't believe the post office where I work is out of the woods yet. My boss apparently thinks the regular who sprained their collarbone falling on ice is going to be 100% next week. I don't think he will be. If that's the case, we'll have to split his route up delivery wise. That will lead to more annoying shenanigans like we had earlier this week. Those are getting really old.

More incredibly, a sub who may have scammed her way out of way for the Christmas holiday had the cheek to call in and dictate what routes the sub would work. The alternative is the sub won't work any and, we'll be royally screwed. This is totally ridiculous. Since when can a substitute carrier decide what routes they're going to work? The kicker is this sub will get away with this. As I've previously reported, it seems next to impossible to be fired at the Postal Service. Though, I'm getting to the point where I may test that maxim myself. Want to bet I won't get the same slack the others have?

So, the year 2010 isn't starting out well for me. God only knows what drama I'm going to have to deal with this year. It shouldn't be this ridiculous. The only alternative I see is resigning from the Postal Service. However, if I do that, what do I do job wise? That has been the major problem I've faced the 3 and a half years I've stuck it out there. God still hasn't shown me a decent alternative. It's very frustrating. Stay tuned for more updates in this absurd saga.

Riding

Yesterday, I got to go riding on my TMAX for the first time in over a week. Thanks to it warming up and raining Saturday, a lot of the snow and ice we got slammed with 2 Saturdays ago had melted. It was nice to get back on the road and ride the bike. It continues to impress me with its acceleration and power. It has no problem doing 80 or 85 mph. I rode by Baltimore Washington International Airport. I have the travel itch real bad and, I wanted to see some airplanes. Sadly, it's still over 150 days before I get to go on my future Globus Ireland tour. After that tour, as long as I don't buy anything major, I should be able to do 2 tours in 2011. That would be seriously awesome.

After checking out the airport, I rode home. Later, I spoke with my friend Harvey. He has the travel itch as bad as I do and like me, he can't afford to do any major travelling either. I hope to ride down to Richmond once things get slower at the post office where I work and show him my TMAX. The ride to Richmond is about 130 miles and should take about 2 hours and 15 minutes. It'll be my longest ride. It should be interesting to see how it goes. Hopefully, I'll be able to do the ride soon. Even a ride down to Richmond would make me feel like I got away from here for a little bit. We'll see. Cheers all!

Stress

I'd forgotten how stressful the Christmas season can be at the post office where I work. It's our busiest time of the year. People mail lots of Christmas cards and send various presents to their family and friends. The packages are the biggest pain as you can't stuff one of those in a mailbox normally. They fill the mail truck up rapidly and, it is a challenge to keep them in order so you don't accidentally fail to deliver one at an address. If you do, you have two choices. You can take it back to the post office and try to deliver it again the next day which means you have to mess with the package a 2nd time or, you can drive back to the residence and drop it off. Either choice costs you time and, the day is long enough already.

If things weren't stressful enough, we have subs who decide to make it more stressful. How do they do that? They do that by not showing up for work. They know they can't be fired and, they apparently decide they want to take time off before Christmas. If they properly requested the time off, they know the request would be turned down. This is one of the prime times when regular carriers want to take time off so they can spend more time with their families or travel to see members of their extended family. So, they call out. As every post office is equally swamped, there is little chance we can use subs from other post offices at this time to cover for them. So, those of us who are already swamped on the routes we're already assigned to have to take on the extra work the subs who called out didn't take. For me, this was a back breaker Tuesday. I had to case my assigned route and then, I had to case an auxiliary route we have. Then, I had to pull down the mail for both routes, somehow keep the 2 different route's mail and packages separate in my truck and deliver it. To make matters worse, the auxiliary hadn't been delivered Saturday (because of snow) or Monday (the regular sub assigned to it called out). That means I had 4 days of mail for it. Then, there is the snow. While the roads become more passable every day since the huge snow fall we had Saturday, people haven't cleared away the snow from their boxes. That means that the carrier has to get out of their truck and slog through foot deep snow to get to their box. It really slows you down.

To add to the burden, we are getting a LOT of late Express Mails. What are late Express Mails? Late Express Mails are items mailed Express Mail that arrive so late that it is impossible to deliver them by Noon like we normally would. However, we still have to deliver these the same day they arrive. So, we get more of these that we have to deliver in addition to everything else. I got tagged with 2 of them which cost me another 30 minutes.

So, I was seriously overloaded Tuesday. To compound matters, my boss gets on me about how long I'm taking. I'm fully aware of how long it's taking. I very much want to get the job done and go home. I very much am cursing the damn subs who called out who caused me to have to take all this extra mail. At one point, I'm ready to drive my mail truck back to the post office, unload it, leave and tell them I'll see them after Christmas. After all, I can always claim to not feeling well which would be true as I'm seriously stressing. Plus, if they can't fire the other craps, they shouldn't be able to fire me. Instead, I grit my teeth and keep slogging away. I end up racking up over 12 hours (my 2nd in a row) and go in early the next day to try to get a jump on the stuff. I end up working my 3rd 12 hour day. (groan) The only good thing about this whole mess is I will get a nice paycheck.

Thankfully, Christmas is tomorrow. The mail volume will start dropping and continue to drop through the summer. Also, I'm keeping my fingers crossed we get the 7 additional subs my boss requested. If we get those, the other subs who don't want to work can do so and, it won't affect me i.e. I won't have to pick up their slack. I look forward to the Christmas season winding down and getting a couple days off. I can seriously use them. Cheers all!

Snow!

Yesterday, the weatherman was predicting we were going to get royally clobbered snow wise today. They were predicting as much as 26 inches of snow. It turned out they got their predictions right. When I walked out to my car at 5:45 a.m., we already had at least 5 inches of the white stuff. Everyone at the Post Office wondered if we would get sent home. The weather predictions said it was only going to get worse. Worse still, the person who was supposed to put the chains on our mail trucks for some reason didn't. While a number of the trucks had good tires on them with good tread, it wasn't nearly enough to handle 8 plus inches of snow. Upper management decided we would try to deliver some of the mail and so, we were sent out with our automated sorted mail i.e. DPS mail. It turned out to be a fruitless attempt. The snow fall went from 2 inches an hour to 4! With already nearly a foot of snow on the ground, there was no way the trucks could get through it. As soon as the trucks were sent out, a number of them became stuck. In my personal case, I tried hard to get through and deliver my mail but, a number of the roads I had to deliver mail to weren't plowed. It was impossible to get through them. After getting royally stuck and only able to get free thanks to 2 awesome strangers who helped get my truck free, I gave up and very carefully made me way back to the post office where I work. All of the carriers both city and rural were called back. By Monday, the roads should be more passable and, we'll have to play catch up mail wise. The current snow fall is supposed to continue through tonight. It may look pretty but, it has made it impossible to get any where. Stay tuned for more updates. Cheers all!

Payraise

The word that those of us who work rural postal routes were going to be a payraise was confirmed today. I found out in my paycheck that my pay went up to $18.50 an hour. The payraise was part of the last contract the rural carriers union had negotiated with the Postal Service. The raise was 1.5% which in the case of substitute carriers worked out to 26 cents an hour. I was delighted to get any kind of raise at all. It'll help me pay off my bike, top up my IRA and pay off the future trip to Ireland I hope to do that much sooner.

Disgusted

Almost 2 weeks ago, we had a sub throw away mail. If there is anything you can't do at the Postal Service, that should've been it. The sub should've been fired. Did the sub get fired? Nope! The sub got a 2 week suspension without pay. I couldn't believe it. I told my boss you can get away with anything at the Post Office. My boss mumbled that if the sub messes up again, the sub will face even greater punishment and, this was the sub's first offense. This should've been the sub's first and LAST offense considering what the sub did. As far as greater punishment, big whoop! We've got a sub that has walked off the job 3 TIMES and, the sub is still there! We've got other subs that have been giving lines for months about childcare and, they're still getting away with it. I'm totally disgusted at this point. I feel like a total schmuck for trying to doing a good job and going the extra mile. I'm definitely not going to go the extra mile anymore. It isn't worth it. And, I'm not going to take anymore bumps after doing a route. That'll probably get me cut to 1 day a week. Fine! At least, I won't be the SCHMUCK who is out there at 7:30 in the evening delivering mail. They can find another dummy to do it. Plus, after every thing I've seen, I'm not terribly worried about getting fired. That seems next to impossible to do. Cheers all!

White Flint Mall

This past Sunday, I was looking for some place to ride to. The weather was nice and, I had an itch to explore some where new. I haven't been impressed with the prizes at the Hanover, Maryland Dave & Buster's (D&Bs) . I found out the only other D&Bs was at the White Flint Mall just off the Rockville Pike. I decided to check out the D&Bs there as well as the mall.

The mall was pretty with a number of very nice looking shops. Size wise, it wasn't super big though it made up for that some by having 3 floors. The mall had some anchor stores including Lord & Taylor and Bloomingdales. Parking was decent.

In regards to the Dave & Busters, initially, I had a hard time finding the arcade. I did manage to find it and checked it out. Size wise, it was probably smaller than the Arundel Mills D&Bs. However, the prize booth was definitely bigger and better stocked. They had a 30 gigabyte Zune player, an iPod and one of the Apple phones. I forget what they're called.

While walking around, I noticed a girl playing the Deal or No Deal game. I decided to play it to see how I would do. I've found it pretty interesting watching the tv show. I found out my luck in this game royally stunk! To my disbelief, I managed to pick the case that had the lowest number of ticket (2) TWICE in a ROW. I definitely got the idea I better stick with Spin & Win.

The ride back home was uneventful barring getting honked at once and having cars passed around me. I was being cautious riding wise. I wouldn't move over to another lane unless I was absolutely certain it was safe to do so. I continue to be pleased with my TMAX. It can really take off and, it's a pleasure to ride. I can't wait to ride it down to Richmond to show it to my friend Harvey. Cheers all!

Dave & Busters

Dave & Busters brought back half priced games this week. Normally, I find it very expensive to play their games. My favorite game is Spin & Win. I feel that game gives you the most control barring a hoop shooting game or some such. With Spin & Win, you decide when to stop the spinning light. If you time it right, you can consistently get it within the area where one of the 1,000 ticket lights are. At that point, it's just a matter of managing to stop it the split second it hits the 1,000 ticket light. Last night, I probably missed the 1,000 ticket light 40 or 50 times BUT, because I was getting it in the range of the light, I was able to hit it 16 TIMES! I ended up winning over 20,000 tickets which isn't bad for $100. I've seen others turn in just 2 or 3,000 tickets.

The half priced games promotion they had made it affordable to play their games. I'm sure Dave & Busters still makes money with that promotion. You look at what the prizes cost and what it'll cost you to win enough tickets and, they're making money. Still, it isn't able trying to find a bargain at Dave & Busters. It's about having fun playing the games and, they are definitely fun. I'd give a large whoop every time I hit the 1,000 ticket light.

To my delight, my ticket hoard is now up to 253,345. I can get multiple prizes of anything I want there. That's neat thinking about that. I still haven't been wiped out by the prizes they have at the Arundel Mills Dave & Busters but, I'm not going to win a prize. I go just to win the game and gets LOTS of tickets. I hope to go back next week and add to my hoard. Cheers all!

Hard Day

Yesterday, I had a hard day of work at an alternate post office I sometimes work at. One of their regular carriers injured his foot and, his doctor put him on mandatory rest for a week so it could heal better. The Postmaster at that post office asked for me to cover the route. I assumed I was going to get a day of training with the regular carrier and so took my time arriving at that post office. I got one huge shock when I found out I would have to do the route cold turkey. There wouldn't be any training and, because I'd taken my time getting to the post office, I'd wasted 20 minutes I could've been casing mail. It ended up being a slog. Normally, mail routes follow a path of right turns. This one did anything but that. Also, the directions weren't clear where I should deliver mail and where I shouldn't. I found myself doing a number of u-turns so I could go back and deliver to boxes I'd missed. Lastly, I had a time finding addresses on the mail case because I didn't know it.

I managed to get the mail delivered for the route and, I took some comfort knowing I'll do better tomorrow. I'm scheduled to work at the alternate post office today and Thursday. I hope things will go better. We'll see. Cheers all!

Arlington National Cemetary

Yesterday, I visited Arlington National Cemetary. I first visited in during my July Globus Historic U.S. East tour. While there, I failed to get some decent photos so I decided to go back and try again. My Garmin GPS proved priceless in finding the place. Thanks to that, I was able to drive there in about 35 minutes. The first thing I did once I got there was take some pictures fo the USMC War Memorial. The memorial is located just outside the cemetary. It is a very impressive memorial. It features bronze statues of 5 Marines and 1 Navy medic raising the flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima. The flag raising immortalized the Marines. It is a magnificent memorial.

Inside the cemetary are countless rows of white marble crosses marking the graves of soldiers, sailors, marines and coasties who have died in service to their country. Many veterans ask that when they die, they be buried at Arlington. You can see why if you ever visit the place. I know when I die, I want to be buried there.

One thing I didn't get to do when I visited with Globus was see the Tombs of the Unknowns. We had a lot of things to see in D.C. and a limited amount of time. The Tombs of the Unknowns are the remains of military members who were killed in World War I, II, the Korean War and Vietnam and couldn't be identified. On the main tomb at the end of the epitaph, it says "known only to God." That is how it is for the these unknown troops who gave the final measure of service to their country. A lone sentry patrols the tombs standing guard, day and night. Immaculately uniformed, they march back and forth guarding the tombs. I found it a moving sight.

My last stop was to see President John F. Kennedy's gravesite. Few men have spoken such inspirational words as he did. I still think it tragic how he died. With him, I can't help but wonder how things might've been if he had lived. Next to him is his wife Jackie Onassis who epitomized class and style of the time. Close by are his 2 brothers Robert and Ted. Robert is another one you have to wonder what if. Why did he have to die?

I left Arlington in somber reflection. In my opinion, there isn't any more sacred ground in the entire United States. It is filled with the remains of those who placed their country above themselves and some gave their lives for it. It is the burial place of many of its military heroes. It is a deeply moving reminder of the price this country has had to pay to stay free.

Honeycrisp Apples

One of my MySpace friends (I forget who) raved about honeycrisp apples. She said they were pricey (she wasn't kidding there) but, they were very good. I'd never heard of the things. Later, I heard them being advertised at the local Safeway. My curiousity was peaked. So, when I visited the base commissary and saw them, I decided to try some of them. I found them to be better than red delicious apples. They have a better flavor. Also, they are every bit as crunchy as a red delicious. Price wise, they are expensive. Safeway sells them for $3 a pound unless you have their shopping card in which case they are $1.49 a pound. That isn't cheap but, they are good apples. I plan to buy some more of them while they're in season. If you like apples, I'd recommend you try these. Bon appetit!