Monthly Archive for November, 2011

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Geezer Retirement Rap – Ain’t no swimmin’ ’til the skimmers done skimmin’

Published on November 20, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 1 Comment

Swimming pool

Got up this morning when the sunrise broke,

looked out the window and said “ain’t no joke!”

Jumped out the door next to the pool,

said to nobody listening: “hey! that ain’t cool!”

Leaves and junk were floating the surface

wreckin’ the water and making a muss.

Ain’t no swimmin’ ’til the skimmers done skimmin’

Clearing the haze from my REM sleep,

I puts the net on the pole and proceeded to sweep,

Gettin’ tree droppings and assorted crunk,

Few more minutes I’d be taking a dunk.

Flipped the net over to eject the crud,

it got blowed back in to the man-made flood.

Ain’t no swimmin’ ’til the skimmers done skimmin’

Air turned blue, sun shinin’ in the sky

Came to an agreement, pool and I.

“Keep the crunk you chlorine infused punk,

ain’t gonna cause no problem to me and my junk.”

Dipped my body into the eighty degree water,

and let the boys simmer instead of getting hotter.

Forget Ain’t no swimmin’ ’til the skimmers done skimmin’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Spend 400,000 Repairing a Effin’ Car

Published on November 15, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 3 Comments


We way overpaid for a beater to drive around Costa Rica.

Turns out the price was just the beginning. The car has had overheating problems from the first week I bought it.

I took the car back to get a new thermostat installed (free – under “warranty.”)  This help for a few weeks and then the overheating began again.  The coolant was leaving the car for parts unknown by a path unknown. Eventually I realized that topping off the radiator every 2-3 days with coolant was not cost efficient.

Before we had visitors our running around was just to Atenas and back home – about 8 miles total. Not ever enough to get the car overheated. Then our visitors arrived and we made a little sight-seeing run.

As we were returning from our destination, the heat gauge began to rise. Never got to full hot – but close enough I was sweating it. The first mechanic said it was a blown head gasket. Not willing to take the first opinion, I got a second.

He said the car had the wrong radiator!

Montero 4 cylinder radiator

Radiator for a 4 Cylinder Montero

Radiator for 6 cylinder Montero

 

The second mechanic, Freddy, said the radiator was clogged. When he sent it to the radiator specialist, they told him the radiator was original equipment for a 4 cylinder Montero. Our Effin’ Car is a 6 cylinder.

See the difference? Yes, it was that obvious when I saw the rebuilt radiator.  The radiator that was in the car was woefully short of cooling capacity. Downhill on a cool day wasn’t a big deal. Uphill on a hot day was a different matter.

The first mechanic suggested that I could probably drive for quite a while if I just kept filling the radiator every 2-3 days and carried some extra water in a jug.

Nah. My luck, it would overheat when we were 50 miles from home with a car full of dogs. You ever smell a sweaty dog?

400,000 Colones later, I have a rebuilt radiator for a 6 cylinder car, a new fan belt, a new tensor, and some fluids.

That’s the price you pay for piece of mind. Now I can send Nancy on the road when her friends come to visit and feel fairly comfortable the car won’t overheat.

Effin’ cars.

I wonder how long it would have been before I blew up the car if I was just using water every 2-3 days.

Keep your fingers crossed that I can drive this Effin’ car for a bunch more miles before I have to replace something else that shouldn’t need replacing.

Geeky Animated Gif Monday

Published on November 14, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 0 Comments

Oh WTF? Chelsea Clinton will Join Jenna Bush and Luke Russert At NBC? Oh WTF?

Published on November 14, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 2 Comments

Chelsea Clinton Will Work for NBC

NBC’s “Today” show has Jenna Bush, now NBC News has hired another former first daughter to report for the “Nightly News” and “Rock Center” broadcasts.

Chelsea Clinton will be a special correspondent for the shows specifically the “Making a Difference” series.

“Our ‘Making a Difference’ segments have become a signature of the broadcast. “They adhere to a simple goal of highlighting the good works being done across the country and around the world. Chelsea Clinton possesses an uncommon understanding of humanity. We are so excited she’s joining us to tell the stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”

says anchor and managing editor Brian Williams in a press release.

“I have long been impressed that Brian and his team at NBC place consistent importance on sharing stories of empowerment that in turn, help empower other people and families. I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this tradition.”

oozed Chelsea Clinton.

Oh just WTF makes the network execs think these spawn of famous parents will attract viewers? What are their qualifications other than name recognition? Have we sunk so low that this is how we want “news” networks staffed?

Apparently NBC thinks “yes, you are stupid and will tune in and give credibility to these spawn because of their parent’s notoriety.

Nice that Chelsea Clinton’s new colleagues are such a welcoming bunch…

UPDATE:

 Politico’s Ken Vogel tweeted that Clinton gave reporters the “total cold shoulder” during the previous election cycle. And Glenn Thrush echoed his Politico colleague’s experience on Twitter: “In ’08, Chelsea Clinton (in NH) told me ‘Sorry, I don’t talk to the media.’ I said, ‘But you are all grown up now.’ Now she IS the media.”

Forbes‘ John McQuaid:

Whenever a network TV news division pulls one of these nepotistic no-brainers, it saps a bit of American journalism’s life force.

Jezebel’s Anna North:

Chelsea has always seemed like a smart lady, and no doubt she’ll work hard at her new job. Still, wouldn’t it be nice if when you weren’t sure what to do with your life, the president of NBC News just called you up and asked you what type of job you felt like having?

Salon’s Glenn Greenwald:

We all owe our gratitude to NBC News for single-handedly correcting the shameful, long-standing exclusion from our media discourse of the views of young, journalistically accomplished heirs and heiresses to political power and great fortune.

Is Sleep Apnea Finally Getting Cool?

Published on November 11, 2011 in Baby Boomer. 3 Comments

OK, a medical condition that can kill ya will never be cool, but it appears that sleep apnea is losing some of it’s stigma.

Making jokes about snoring is just so easy – and anyone that is sleeping with someone has heard them snore. Sometimes it’s caused by over-eating, over-drinking, or being over -tired.

Sleep Apnea Snoring

Those snoring spells usually last one night and getting punched in the ribs by a bed partner will make the snoring stop.

But there are times – more and more it appears – that the snoring is a symptom of Sleep Apnea.

And Sleep Apnea can kill ya.

At the time of his retirement, Reggie White was the NFL’s all-time sacks leader. During his 15 year NFL career the “Minister of Defense”, as White was known, played for 3 teams, won one Super Bowl, was selected to the Pro-Bowl 13 times, and was twice named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year. In addition to being selected to the NFL’s 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, White was named to the NFL All-Decade teams for both the 80’s and 90’s.
On December 26, 2004 Reggie White suffered a fatal cardiac arrhythmia. The combination of cardiac and pulmonary sarcoidosis, and sleep apnea that White suffered from, most likely contributed to his heart attack.

So you don’t die from Sleep Apnea – you die from a related condition.

Sleep Apnea is usually associated with overweight geezer guys. Thus making jokes about snoring is aimed at Baby Boomer guys – and usually are made by their Baby Boomer wives.

But lately I”m hearing about it more and more from 30 somethings – Xers.

Check out this Apartment Therapy column…

Don’t Lose Sleep Over It: A Guide to Surviving Snoring

I was especially interested in the number of commenters along this line…

My boyfriend and I both inherited horrible sleep apnea from our fathers (seriously–and both died early of heart-related issues) and we use the CPAP technology to prevent our own health problems down the road.

i once woke up at a relative’s to find everyone discussing sleep apnea and how frightening it is to sleep near someone who stops breathing like that.

My husband snored loudly – I could still hear him in the guest room on the other side of the house. He also had sleep apnea, and would sometimes go so long between breaths that I’d nudge him to partially wake him up.

If he’d listened to me, I might still be a wife instead of a widow.

After three years of living together (sleeping in separate rooms), my partner got a sleep study done and was diagnosed with medium severe apnea. The cpap he uses is impressive – it’s so quiet, and he wakes up with tons more energy than before.

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that the readers of Apartment Therapy tend to skew younger than Baby Boomers. The fact that the commenters talk about “boyfriend” and “living together” would reinforce that these aren’t of my generation.

That a conversation about stopping snoring on a blog aimed at Xer’s created so many comments about sleep apnea almost makes it cool.

But it will kill ya.