I like this time at night on HBT

[Leadgolem]

I needed a new gas cap, so I got a couple extra things. You know, so I could save on the shipping.

 

[passedpawn]

I'm failing to miss the ground...

I must have a cup of tea.

One of my many heros, this guy. Died young. I read the Hitchikers's books (twice) and others (Dirk Gently).

I have always had very, very strong dreams of flying, where I have trouble with the reality of it after I wake up.

 

[CGVT]

I only read the Hitchhiker series once, but enjoyed it. I bought it for my 17 year old son for his birthday a few years ago.

I finally broke down and had a guy come out and look at my refrigerator. I wouldn't have done it if I had more time and the skills and tools to troubleshoot it. My microwave quit working too, so I had him look at both appliances. I am pretty much anti-extended/after market warranties, but I have a home warranty. It came with the house when we bought it (a foreclosure) and we kept it after the first year and believe it or not, it has payed to have it. It will cost me 90 dollars for the visit and the warranty will cover anything over that. The refrigerator was the defroster switch as expected and there was a relay that wasn't working in the microwave. I could have fixed the fridge, but not the microwave.

http://youtu.be/EP8v33dKhF8

 

[passedpawn]

I only read the Hitchhiker series once, but enjoyed it. I bought it for my 17 year old son for his birthday a few years ago.

I finally broke down and had a guy come out and look at my refrigerator. I wouldn't have done it if I had more time and the skills and tools to troubleshoot it. My microwave quit working too, so I had him look at both appliances. I am pretty much anti-extended/after market warranties, but I have a home warranty. It came with the house when we bought it (a foreclosure) and we kept it after the first year and believe it or not, it has payed to have it. It will cost me 90 dollars for the visit and the warranty will cover anything over that. The refrigerator was the defroster switch as expected and there was a relay that wasn't working in the microwave. I could have fixed the fridge, but not the microwave.

http://youtu.be/EP8v33dKhF8

You should have posted here. I've fixed my fridge and mike many times. In fact, I'm replacing the magnetron in my mike this weekend.

 

[CGVT]

You should have posted here. I've fixed my fridge and mike many times. In fact, I'm replacing the magnetron in my mike this weekend.

I appreciate that PP and I did post earlier, before the microwave went out. I had some suggestions on the fridge, but it was worth every penny of the $90 to have someone else fix it and not have to deal with it

If the micro hadn't gone out too, would have probably fixed the fridge myself.

The microwave came with the house. It is one of those commercial, high $$ Adventium models with a convection oven and all kinds of other stuff that I haven't figured out how to use. All of the stuff on it but the microwave part worked. I had to get that fixed since we use a $1000 appliance to warm left-overs and coffee. Ha!

 

[LabRatBrewer]

I probably should not be post now. I thought I posted this early but I don't see it. Definitely i should not post from my phone, i cant type with this S4 (i miss bb) [black berry...sheesh] Nonetheless, I love Hitch Hikers Guide...sadly I did not know Douglas was dead. What a loss. I'm late to the antiparty but sad.

 

[Dynachrome]

Beautiful prison: my bike is frozen into the garage.

....but I can still drink.

 

[bberg]

Just got my new front tire put on. Riding season!

 

[LabRatBrewer]

I guess they were hungry.

 

[gillsrob]

Ahh someones brewing! My next batch, I'm definitely going to try it with a started instead of throwing dry yeast into a bucket

 

[Stauffbier]

Hi everyone!

I brewed my Oktoberfest today. I hit all my numbers and got an astonishing 84% mash efficiency today. Haven't hit that high in quite a while.

I just threw together some sourdough beer bread with the spent grains. I'll let the dough ferment all night and bake it tomorrow.

I hope you all have been well. Between work, brewing, and dough making I'm beat!

Chat with you all again soon!

 

[Dan]

Hi friends. I would like to say thanks to all of you who have sent well wishes my way on the move. Im on a phone and suck at typing on it. Hope to give some personaluzed messsages when I get back to my work computer tomorrow night. Ill usevitbwhile I can for the next week!

Cheers to you good people. GB.

 

[Stauffbier]

Cheers Dan! Good to hear from you. Take care friend!

 

[Dan]

Cheers Dan! Good to hear from you. Take care friend!

Thank you Mike! Ill try to say more when I have a big letboard under my fongertyps

I know people pist perfevtly with pjones. Im not one of therm

Ps. Above is how it comes outm when I type carefullu I suck at cell phonr texying.

 

[HefeHood]

Dan,
No worries. Be the cellphone or computer, the message come through loud and clear. You mention earlier that your dog was making the trip ahead of you. Did he travel ok?

 

[CGVT]

Dan,
No worries. Be the cellphone or computer, the message come through loud and clear. You mention earlier that your dog was making the trip ahead of you. Did he travel ok?

Indeed.

I believe that there is a thirty day quarantine on dogs coming into Hawaii?

 

[Dan]

I hope this multi quoting works. I usually screw something up along the way. haha

Safe travels and best of luck Dan! I think it will be a great new experience for you.

Keep in touch as much as you can, and when you can't just know that your friends here will be thinking of you!

Thanks Mike, truly. It's kind of funny, I guess I'll still be on the internet via phone at least so I'm not really going anywhere virtually. My place in Hawaii does have internet but my laptop is a frustrating piece of junk. Phone is faster.

Good luck Dan

Thank you gillsrob!

Good luck Dan. I hope to see you on the island(s) someday. I haven't made it there yet, but you never know. HI has a nice public library system and very good wifi access everywhere, so no excuses for not posting (btw I just made that up, but its paradise so it seems probable). Have fun and hug your wife.

LRB, your post just made me smile. Especially the parenthesis(ed?) part of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfwFpRnOeGg

It sounds like you're doing things right then. If everything always goes right, you never learn anything.


About two months ago my furnace fan started making a horrible noise. It's an old furnace so I figured it was bye bye fan bearings. It was still working, so I didn't immediately call anybody.

After work today I decided to pull the service panel off and take a look, in case there was a grease zerk or something and I could get it to quite down for a while until it was replaced.

It turns out that some random piece of insulation had gotten sucked into the fan and was smacking the side of the ducting when the fan turned. Nothing at all was wrong with the actual fan. Wish I'd looked at it earlier. It's a load off my mind to have that resolved.

I like the way you think LG! I suppose my life was pretty sheltered in many ways by a career in the military. Real world time now as I'll probably be leaving the military/ military contractor world with this Hawaii move. Time will tell! A new adventure begins.

Dan, Good luck with the transition to Hawaii. We will be here to translate the cryptic phone posts, chuckling to ourselves. Friends always. When I win the next big lottery I'll bring all of us over to visit, have a few home brews on the beach.

I'll have some beer ready for you and anybody else that wants to come over. Well, give me a 6-12 months to get settled first.

Dan and Bobbi are tied with most posts in this thread. One more post Dan before you move.

I was tempted to PM Bobbi and ask her to start posting so she keeps the lead, I don't like having the most posts here.

Count me in when you win the lottery. I'd like to drink homebrew on the beach and visiting Dan would be nice too

You know you always have an open invite Ischiavo. Well, give me 6-12 months to get established first.

I will be looking for your posts from Paradise, Dan. I went to REFTRA in Honoruru a couple of times in a prior life. I enjoyed my time there.

Today is the one year anniversary of my retirement from the Coast Guard. I miss the comradery.

Congrats on your one year annisversary! I'm just over 4 and a half years retired from the Navy. Was transferred to the Fleet Reserve in November 2009 and officially retired May 2013.. The time has flown by but I definitely miss the comaraderie thats for sure.

Sounds like an exciting time for you Dan. Ending some chapters, starting some new ones. And what better way to do it than island style. Before you know it you'll be speaking pidgin Hope you have a safe journey you lucky bastard

Thanks BBL, not sure I'll ever feel comfortable with pidgin. "da kine" is about as local as this hauli boy gets. There is a translation book though! Hahaha!

Good luck Mr. Dan.


How's the HBT crowd tonight?

Thanks Mr Bberg! Glad you found this thread.

Just fine Mr. Bberg. How are you?

Here's some traveling music for Dan, and anyone else deciding to hit the road soon. Hope life is treating you fairly, late nite crowd. Love this movie, and any time I hit the road I think of Hoffman in that little MG. Love that movie, and especially Katherine Ross.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y_EMhWIcy4

Pappy!

Dan,
No worries. Be the cellphone or computer, the message come through loud and clear. You mention earlier that your dog was making the trip ahead of you. Did he travel ok?

Thanks Hefe for the encouragement as usual. The dog made it safely, but not with out hassel. I'll explain a little later.

Indeed.

I believe that there is a thirty day quarantine on dogs coming into Hawaii?

Yep, there is a quarantine on animals coming into Hawaii. 120 days but it isn't as bad as it used to be. Years ago the animal had to wait in a kennel at the Hawaii Quarantine center for 120 days and very very expensiive kennel fees, in the thousands.

These days the animal just has to have all the required rabbies shots, pass a FAVN blood test

a blood test that measures your pet’s immune system response to the rabies vaccine, to see if enough antibodies are being produced after vaccination

and then wait 120 days, at your own house stateside. After 120 days all that is needed is a health certificate from the vet (good for up to ten days) and Frontline application within a certain time frame. I think the fee was around $80 for processing with Hawaii quarantine center.

 

[Dan]

Hi everybody!

Wow! The last few days have been a bit of a blur. I got my dog sent off to Hawaii and motorcycles dropped off to a shipping company and spent the weekend with my son and daughter in law.

My dog, Dasher - A little big dawg.

He’s a 4 year old Pomeranian mixed with some dog that had long legs and a long neck. Dasher is fifteen pounds of energy, love, and love. He loves to run and he confidently prances when he walks.. Quite a little guy and I love him more than anything probably. Well, not more than my kids but the wife might be in for a challenge. My tenants have been watching him these last seven months and in return I temporarily lowered the price of the rent. Real nice family, they took great care of Dash.

I made arrangements to have him flown from a local airport to a major hub and then on to Honolulu. He left Tuesday morning as “cargo” on a United Airlines flight. Monday night, after work I picked him up from my tenant’s house around 10 pm. Drove to the local airport and we slept in my car till 4 am.

I then put him on a leash and carried his kennel, walked into the airport ticket counter. When you ship a dog or cat, they are shipped as cargo but not treated like suitcases. It’s safe. We got to the ticket counter and started the processing. The agent looked at his kennel and said it wasn’t an approved kennel. Huh?

Agent: Sir, is that a collapsible kennel?
Me: Uhm… No sir, I don’t think so.
Agent: That looks like a collapsible kennel and they are not allowed on flights.
Me: I’ve used it before on flights. I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Agent: That is a collapsible kennel and you can’t use it.
Me: (in my head) This is Bullsh!t
Agent: You need a kennel like this (he showed me a picture example)
Me: Why didn’t the website state that? !
Agent: I’m sorry sir, you need this, (pointed to the picture again) type of container.
Me: It’s 4 am, where am I going to get a kennel at 4 am? (In my head I was thinking PetSmart doesn’t open till eight am)
Me: There is no way I can buy a kennel this time of the morning. Can’t I just sign a waiver to state you can use this one?
Agent: No sir, the airlines could be fined.
Me: eff me!

So, I was tired, frustrated, beaten to be honest. This move of the dog was part of the final culmination to a carefully laid out plan. There was no time to redo this the next day because another cog in the wheels of this move started the next day.

I called my wife and told her what was happening. She said “Go to a 24 hour Walmart” Lord, she is brilliant sometimes. I looked up the Walmarts in the local area and there were a few. I drove to the nearest one about 2.5 miles away.

The lights were on, there were a bunch of cars in the parking lot and the doors were open. Score!! I walked up to the store and a security guy in a truck pulled alongside me and said the store is closed. Opens at 7 am.. a half hour after the flight takes off.. I asked him if they would make an exception, it was sort of an emergency. (I didn’t say first world emergency – but it was really)

He said no can’t do that and in fact the last guy that walked into the store at that time of night had the police called in and he was taken away in handcuffs. I said well we don’t want that do we. I walked back to my car with a mountain of worry on my shoulder. As I pulled out the same Security Officer flagged me down and told me if I didn’t mind a drive there WAS as 24 hour Walmart about 25 minutes away. He gave me directions and I drove there. I drove fast, it was 4:10 am, there were no cars on the road.

Long story short, I bought the proper kennel, put it together on a bench at Walmart, drove (fast) back to the airport. Parked my car, grabbed the kennel, Dash followed with no leash and we stood in now what was a long line. We finally made it to the front of the line. The agent asked, not the same one as before:

New Agent: Do you have a booking number?
Me: Yes I do
New Agent: That flight has left
Me: I know, but the guy that I talked to earlier said you have a flight leaving at 8:38 am and will connect in San Francisco to a flight that arrives in Hawaii at 13:45.
New Agent: Yes sir, that is true but what he didn’t tell you is we can’t book you on that flight because Pet Safe has to do that, we don’t know what other dogs might be on the flight and there are compatibility issues to be dealt with.
Me (in my head ARRRGGGG) OK.. I’ll call them. ( I check my paperwork, no phone number for PetSafe so I go back to the counter and interrupt the agent..)
Me: I need the number to Pet Safe! I have no pen.
A lady in line: Sir, I’m so sorry you are having troubles, here is a pen. The agent gives me the number

I call. The phone was answered right away and booking was made. I got back in the agents line. Dash was not on a leash the whole time at the airport. It was our turn, I put him in the kennel, they took him. I headed back home.

Later that day it was a mess in Honolulu. My wife had to wait three hours for the processing. Our past experience we never waited more than 10-15 minutes.

In the end. Dasher is safely in Hawaii and waiting for me.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

Dan,
It sounds like you and Dasher had quite an adventure. I am glad he made it to Hawaii.

 

[Dan]

Next adventure was getting my motorcycles to a shipping port in San Diego. It was relatively simple. I hired a Budget truck. Great price. The hardest part was worrying about the ramp. Both bikes weigh well over six hundred pounds and plus my 200lb weight the load was 800 and 1000 lbs. Long story short. It all worked out. Ramp held up. I didn't crash driving the bikes into the truck, the wooden tiedown points held up and my riding finess didn't let the bikes fall over backing them out of the truck down the steep ramp.

All I have left to do is visit my daughter next Saturday, drive to my son's house near San Diego, Sunday and drop off the car in LA, Monday. My son will take Monday off work and follow me to the drop off. Bring me back to his house and the next day 4/15 take me to the San Diego airport before he goes to work. My orignial plan was to drop off the car and leave out of LAX but the ticket was ridiculously expensive. San Diego was only a third the price for a ticket.

Okay.. that is my update. This time next week it will be two nights and a wake up till i get on the plane for Hawaii.


This whole damn process reminds me of pregnancy. Many months building up to it, hard times and struggles along the way. Once it happens, those time are in the past, insignificant really. A whole new chapter starts.

 

[lschiavo]

Go get em Dan!

 

[passedpawn]

Oh man Dan, your life is changing!

I think back about the changes I've made in my life. So scary, the unknown future. But every time, without exception, change brought a better life. Every time.

I don't think that's because I made good choices. I think that change is innately good. It's like changing your underwear: no matter the brand, getting some clean tight-whitey's on is a good thing.

You're going to be OK Dan. We'll all be wormfood in the near future, so let's focus on having fun and enjoy this blink of time we have here, and ignore the negative.

For your late nite soundtrack, late niters, the incomparable Johnny Mercer.

 

[lschiavo]

No trophy in the pinewood derby Saturday. My son proved a very gracious looser. I am proud.

I went to my best friends father's funeral this weekend. It is hard to see such good people hurting.

I learned a bit about open marriages and cheating wives this weekend too (neither are mine). I do my best to not judge others but I cannot relate and I just feel so sad for it all. I am a lucky husband and father and that is where I will try to focus myself.

No need to reply. I am just sharing feelings with my friends here.

One for Ollie:

 

[Dan]

Oh man Dan, your life is changing!

I think back about the changes I've made in my life. So scary, the unknown future. But every time, without exception, change brought a better life. Every time.

I don't think that's because I made good choices. I think that change is innately good. It's like changing your underwear: no matter the brand, getting some clean tight-whitey's on is a good thing.

You're going to be OK Dan. We'll all be wormfood in the near future, so let's focus on having fun and enjoy this blink of time we have here, and ignore the negative.

For your late nite soundtrack, late niters, the incomparable Johnny Merc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3jdbFOidds

Pappy, as usual you are truly an awesome dude. Thanks for the inspiring words and that Video!

 

[Dan]

No trophy in the pinewood derby Saturday. My son proved a very gracious looser. I am proud.

I went to my best friends father's funeral this weekend. It is hard to see such good people hurting.

I learned a bit about open marriages and cheating wives this weekend too (neither are mine). I do my best to not judge others but I cannot relate and I just feel so sad for it all. I am a lucky husband and father and that is where I will try to focus myself.

No need to reply. I am just sharing feelings with my friends here.

One for Ollie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu-yrLC---s

Sorry, replied bro.

Your style of life and theirs weren't the same but were in many ways; love, friendship, life. You're a good person, Ischiavo, if you weren't you probably wouldn't have even brought this up.....or something like that.

Sorry for your loss. At times like this it is not good to justify. Just remember the goodness in people. As what PP said, we'll all be wormfood someday. And what I comment is trivialities are just insecurities sort of. A man who believes in himself believes in others and that is strength needed.

 

[Dan]

John Belushi, Dan Akroyd, my home state Illinois.

Love this song.

 

[HefeHood]

Dan,
Wondering how you didn't loose your sanity shipping Dasher. Just all that would have pissed me off and probably got security interested. Your a cool cucumber. Good to hear that Dasher is safe with your wife. Sounds like to have a well planned departure\arrival to Hawaii. Wonder if your wonderful lady will greet you with fanfare and flowers? Or maybe you should take the flowers to her?

 

[HefeHood]

lschiavo, Sorry for your loss.

Sounds like your have taught your sons well. They will always look up to you.

 

[CGVT]

That was a hell of an ordeal with the pooch, Dan. Sounds like Dasher made it through OK. I hope you fared as well.

 

[lschiavo]

Sorry, replied bro.

Your style of life and theirs weren't the same but were in many ways; love, friendship, life. You're a good person, Ischiavo, if you weren't you probably wouldn't have even brought this up.....or something like that.
U
Sorry for your loss. At times like this it is not good to justify. Just remember the goodness in people. As what PP said, we'll all be wormfood someday. And what I comment is trivialities are just insecurities sort of. A man who believes in himself believes in others and that is strength needed.

Thanks Dan. It has been a tough weekend. I am thankful for the wise words of my friends here.

lschiavo, Sorry for your loss.

Sounds like your have taught your sons well. They will always look up to you.

Thank you Hef on both accounts.