BloggingThis

Jott.com was supposed to remind me at 6:15 this morning about my dentist appointment today.  I have to set tripwires and implement hacks to break my routine.  The reminder did not arrive on time so my morning routine unfolded like it was on auto pilot.  About one block from the office my phone squaked to remind me of the appointment. <– insert u-turn here –>  I realised then that it was about 7:15 and time to make the trip to the doctor’s office.  It seems suscipious that my reminder was an hour off.  Why must we monkey with the time?  And why on earth would Jott be an hour late?  This is officially my first ever Jott gripe.  Normally they are amazing.

To make up for the wasted drive time this morning I treated myself to some Chick-fil-A mini things for breakfast after my appointment.  Oh yeah, these things are delicious!  Four out of five dental patients recommend them.  The fifth guy is a vegan.

– steve

  If anyone is interested, I’m trying to sell a Sony 200-Disc CD jukebox.  I’ve listed it on ebay here.  To make up for shamelessly wasting your time with this post, I’m offering a discount to my blog readers.  Free delivery if you are in or near the Lakeland area. Okay, now don’t drop me from your RSS reader just because I did this.  I apologized nicely and won’t make this a regular occurrence.  Promise.   I’m just trying to unclutter my bedroom where this thing sits unused.  I’ve come a long way from the Magnavox console, right?– steve 

The news is often makes far better comedy than what you could creatively dream up.  Take Adrian Apgar for example.  He was rescued twice in just over a year’s time from local area lakes infested with alligators.  Apparently, he has a thing for wading out into lakes naked at night.  The gators don’t seem to mind taking a snap at him.  You can read the article in the Ledger here.  I’m beginning to wonder if sherriff Judd isn’t just putting us on for publicity’s sake?  I tip my hat to the deputies that are willing to go in after this dope.

– steve

My first ever CD was sadly Luke Skywalker and the 2 Live Crew and a tamer MC Hammer featuring Can’t Touch This.  What may be even better than that was the hardware on which I played it.  This took some Google searching to come up with, but I located a photo that very nearly matches the huge Magnavox console stereo that I was given by my parents to use.  This thing was as probably 4 foot wide by 2 feet deep by 3 feet high.  That’s right, about 24 cubic feet of stereo goodness.

As you can imagine, this beauty did not include a CD player as standard equipment.  It had an AM\FM radio with the smooth analog dial to tune in Casey Kasem’s  American Top 40 on Sunday morning (pre Ryan Seacrest kids).  It also featured a dual speed record player, complete with pennies taped to the needle to keep skips to a minimum.  It even had an 8-track player.  I only recall listening to two songs on 8-track:  1) Puff the Magic Dragon and 2) Double Vision on K-tel record label.

The real treat on this was the auxiliary RCA connections on the back.  I purchased a used Sharp brand single tray front loading compact disc player from a neighbor for around $75.  Once connected to the 24 cubic feet of Magnavox sweetness with those 10 inch paper woofers, that thing hit.  CDs came on the scene just as super-loud bass was all the rage.  Man did I have the fever too.  I shook the house and rattled pictures off the wall.  My mom used to get upset with the ‘noise’ and crooked pictures.

It’s amazing I can hear anything as an adult after what I’ve subjected myself to.  I could go on to document the crazy stereo system my brother’s car once sported, but I’ll leave that post for him to write.

Check out the other Magnavox console style stereos of the day.  I bet Chuck had one.

– steve

* Thanks Travis for the inspiration for this post.

Every day I round the corner on this particular road and see a house on the horizon that was recently built.  The front of the house is directly in my crosshairs so to speak.  It drives me nuts becasue when it’s dark, my headlights shine straight into the home’s windows.  It must light up their entire house.  I know this is irrational but it pisses me off.  I mean they have a huge lot.  The house could easily have been positioned to the left or right of the road.  Or perhaps the architect could have placed the garage so it is on the ‘headlight’ side of the home instead the other side.  It’s a design flaw and it makes me crazy for no good reason.

It does make me feel a little better just writting this to get it off my head.

– steve