Blog of a bald geek.

I so miss pulling up to any servo, getting out, pressing the touch screen to set the pressure I want. Put the nozzle on and wait for the beeps. Done.

Hows it done here? Glad you asked……….

So you pull in to the servo just like back home.
Already, even at this stage, you know you are in a different country…. the price of gas (as its called over here) is weird.
I still dont get it…. They show it by the gallon (blog coming about USA and the metric system), but they include the fractions of a cent.
So you end up with goofy things like $3.12 9/12 and things like that. I totally have no idea how to read it.

Find a pump, open your fuel door and thats about when things start to really change.
Your now standing at the pump, one or three hoses just like usual, but every pump has a card reader.
I like this a lot. Its so nice to just be able to swipe your card and start filling up.
But, here also is a bit of a got ya. Some of the smaller brands don’t take the usual cards, and charge a surcharge to use anything but theirs.
Also, some don’t take credit, only debit cards….. so you soon learn how to pick your servo brands.

Ok, so swipe your card and enter your post code. Yeah, if its a credit card, you dont put your pin in, you put your zip code…….Security? Pff, this is America, we don’t need no credit card security……
Once you do that, you can pick your nozzle and thus your grade. It will either be one nozzle for all three, or one of three nozzles.
Some pumps, you just lift the nozzle and off you go, but there are still some that you have to lift the nozzle out and then lift a leaver under the now empty space where the nozzle was before the gas will flow. Bit odd, but you soon get used to it.
I have blogged in the past about how you may or may not get spammed while you are doing this. I still find it annoying. (I think the introvert in me just finds it hard to get ANY quiet time in this country, there is just constant stimulation and information being thrown at you, even when you dont want it or expect it!).

We are not done with the differences yet…. On the end of the nozzle there is black rubber cone. The fuel nozzle comes out of the middle of it such that when you put the nozzle in your car, the wide end of the cone goes around where the fuel cap screws into your car and the rubber cone forms a seal around your car and the fuel nozzle.
The idea here is that someone figured that all the fumes from all the cars filling up was causing a lot of pollution, so the cone capatures the fumes and does something with them…….
Sounds fine right… yeah, it is ok, right up until you ride a motor bike…… You cant put the nozzle into the bike tank and fill the tank all the way up. The pump will cut the fuel off when the bike tank is still only half or less full.
No problem right, just lift the nozzle out and squeeze the handle and keep filling right???? No, this is America….. there is some sort of sensor in the end of the cone and if it is not compressed you cant turn the fuel on… so, to fill a bike you have to grab the end of the cone and pull it back to the handle so you can then use the other hand to squeeze the trigger and get the gas to flow…. Some bike shops even sell these little plastic wedge thingos that you can clip onto the end of the cone to pull it back… I have never bothered, the whole two hand job has never bothered me that that much…….

So, you are done filling, put the nozzle back on the pump, screw in your cap and you are off. No need to go into the store to pay. You get the option of getting a docket there from the pump if you want.

So, that’s the drill. And, if it were not for the title of this blog, it would probably make a nice little blog….but lately, I am finding you need to press less buttons to get me wound up about pretty much anything and for the past week, my tire pressure button has been fully compressed!!!

Not being as fit as I once was, I prefer not to use the bike pump I have at home to put air in my car tires…. the last few times over the past few months I have put air in the Rangie tires, I have used the bike pump….. We are going to LA on Sunday for a shoot with Zim and I really want to put air in the tires…….Also, we had the Passat serviced and they said the tires were not waring even and asked if we wanted them rotated. Which I got them to do, but I also have noticed that the VW dealer ship ALWAYS drops the tire pressure when we put the car in for a service, it annoys the beep out of me and I have asked them three times not to do it, but the message never gets to the guy out back…… Anyway, point is, its been on my mind that I have 8 tires to put air in… thats a lot of air for this old guy!!!!

So, I can see you, deal blog reader, asking the simple question of ‘Why not just do it at the servo while you are there?’
Why not indeed…… Because this is America, thats why!!!!!!!!
So, for the pure sake of finishing the visit to the ‘gas station’, lets put some air in your tires. (Or, more accurately, lets TRY and put some air in your tires).

So, once you are done getting your gas, head on into the shop.
Why? Because you have two choices to get air in this country, you can go into the shop, or you can pay 25 cents (that’s a quarter coin to you buddy (yes, they have a single coin worth 25 cents here (they also still have 1 dollar notes and 1 cent coins, DON’T get me started on THAT one!!))).
Yes, that’s right, you have to pay for air.
Some times I am tempted to just pay for it rather than walk into the shop, but I don’t do coinage in this country (I said DON’T get me started on that one!!!!) and so never have a quarter on me.
“Whats wrong with going into the shop? People are not paying for gas, so the place would be empty, right?”
WRONG! Remember, this is America, if you get an American out of his car, he must (its the law) put something in his mouth…. so the shop is full of people in line, waiting to buy cigarettes, doughnuts, Twinkies, energy drinks, coffee, soda pops and otter pops (Don’t get me started about the last two!!!!) and so on…..
Generally, going into the shop, not so fun……
So, you can stand in line, or stand at the side and try and get the assistants attention. Once you have that, you tell them your pump number and you want some air.
Why the pump number? Well, the air is only free for customers, and if you move from your pump and go and park near the air before you go into the shop, I have had assistants argue with me that I am not a customer and I need to pay to get my air. True story.
At this point, they can either press a button or tell you a 4 digit code.
Yeah, you heard me. A lot of air stations have a telephone touch pad that you can enter numbers in. One time, just the one time, I saw on my docket the pin number for the air. This made so much sense that I nearly freaked. Sadly, that gas station is not in Temecula, so I cant go back….. (But,what if you want air and no docket? Got a quarter on ya?)
So, shop full of people, old bald guy that is mildly dyslectic, going deaf by the day and cant cope with accents very well and suddenly, at high speed, you get a 4 digit number spat at you….. hence I always have a pen in hand…..

Getting air is just soooo much fun…. keeping up are we???

So. Back to the car. Move said car from pump to air station.
I really dont have the writing skills to get the next bit in all its color, feel and smell, so you are just going to have to wait for the high def movie when it comes out on Blu-ray……
Seriously, it gets comical……. If the assistent pushed the button, then you are all good, if its a number pad version, you are so out of luck…. why? Because most of them look like they are smeared with vomit….. seriously, I have no idea what people do when they get air to make the machine so gross!
Anyway, put on your kitchen gloves and pound those numbers! and I do mean pound. They take some pressing, what with all the vomit and glue and crap all over them and all…..
Once you get all the numbers in there is no sound or light to tell you that you got the numbers right and that there is air ready to go.
If the assistant had to press the button in the shop, there is no way of knowing that you are good to go, you just have to try it…… And don’t forget, no matter if its button job or pin number, its on a timer, so don’t be mucking about, or you will be half way through your 4th tire and you will need to do it all again……..

Grab the end of the of the hose and give it a good yank. The spools here are wound by killer springs…..no way this sucker is going to be on the ground at the end of the 4th tire and you just let it go (like every one must)….no, its going to retract into that spool at speeds that would leave most sprinters gasping for breath!
So, got a good grip on your hose, head to your first tire, get the valve cap off and jam that hose on…. Now, with out fail, the end nozzle on the hose looks like it has beat with a maul hammer by an iron worker, so you have to wiggle it around a bit to get the now square air nozzle on your round valve stem. You try real hard not to imagine what the nozzle is doing to the nice thread on your valve stem if if your cap is actually going to screw back on after all this…….
So, one hand jamming the thing on, valve cap in your mouth, one foot keep you steady, other foot is pressing on the hose because it wants to get back into that spool with all its might, but dont press too hard, the hose is not super thick and you can really cut the air off if you are not super careful.

Now comes the fun part.

Some have a pop up air gauge, some don’t. All have a brass leaver that you have to squeeze to get the air to flow. Well, that’s the idea….. The leaver also looks like it has done 20 rounds with the ball peen hammer crew and its function has long be forgotten…. It leaks air. A lot of air……well, at least it would, if it were not covered in about an inch of electrical tape and at least three garden hose clamps….. It gets hot here in SoCal. Electrical tape goes all slimy in heat….. But its all gravy baby, as you have your kitchen gloves on and so the black sticky residue all over the the leaver bothers you not!
Go on, hit that leaver, start the rush of air into your tire… I DARE YOU!
Soon as you do, the battle of forces begin.
There is about 36 or so PSI in your tire and there is about 38 PSI coming out the end of the hose, the leaks around the garden hose clamps and melted electrical tape taken about 5-8 PSI from the precious total in the hose.
Its always a lot of fun to see if you can see your tire inflate. Or not.
Whats the pressure like after a moment or seven from the leaver action you have been doing? Let go of that leaver and see what the little pop up pressure gauge says.
I’m sure you are way ahead of me…… How can the thing pop up if its shaped like a banana? What do people do to these things? Do they come new from the factory like this???
So, wrench the nozzle off, put your tire pressure gauge on the stem. Try and not think about what the bludgeoned valve stem threads are doing to your nice digital tire pressure gauge.
Take a reading. With a LOT of luck, its slightly higher than when you started…..
Get the tire to the desired reading.
Keep moving, time is ticking.
Move to the back tire. Remember, that reel is pulling like nuts. There is no way you can keep that hose at ground level, so yeah, go on, let it rub all over the front of the car while you try and keep it under your foot to stop its escape. (Or, get your significant other out of the car to hold it down and off the car).
You get the idea. The other 3 go much the same…. Just remember, after you are done with the last one, when you let go of the hose to stand clear, and try and make sure that the path between you, the spool and the nozzle does not include you,  your car or any part of the paint work!

So. I am off home to get my monthly exercise and use the bike pump to put some air in my tires.

Yeah, um, ok, right, yeah, ahhh, blog…right, yep, got it…….

I am grateful that most of you know that I don’t not blog deliberately….. if you don’t hear from me for a spell its because I am busy in other areas.
The other day, I got 50 emails in one day, none of them were spam and none of them were just ‘FYI’s', they were all to me and all stuff that I had to work on.
I am still working on some of them. I hate taking more than a few days to get back to anyone, but sometimes, I just cant get through it all.

Ok, so, anyway, yes, work has been busy, really busy. Photos have been up and down. I was trying to calm them down for a bit because they were taking up some time. We found that if we leave the car out of the garage, we can peg a sheet on the garage door and get a little studio action happening pretty quick and easy…. Freddy bought a black king sized bed sheet from Wal Mart for 15 bucks (which is a little more my style than $150 for the exact same thing from the photography shop), one of the best things we did. I really like high key photos. (White subject on black background) Its been a real learning experience watching light and seeing how it looks to your eye and then how the same light looks on camera. I have a lot to learn. Point is, the garage being attached to the kitchen helps keep the photos local to the family and connected. That said, they still take some time to get…..
The past few days we have had Sean Porter staying with us. Yes, the very same Sean Porter Photography that is linked to the top of my photo album page. If you have not checked out his stuff, please do it. Got some talent the boy has. So we have been shooting every night with him, he knows flashes better than I do, so I have been trying to pick up some tips before he goes back to Australia.

Still no word on the house. The paper work is progressing. Thats about all we know. I asked a few of the people involved in the process what the go is, like, have we got the house or not…. All of them said that they cant say, there are so many steps in the process that no one person knows them all, so thus no one person can say, ‘yes, you have the house’. If we fail to clear one single step, then the whole thing fails. So, we are just taking it one signature at a time. I’m told that we should know one way or another some time this month. Watch this space, or not, however indifferent you feel.

So, here we are, 480 words into my blog and I have not even began to cover the intended topic…… next time….. perhaps……..

[Edit, this is not my topic, but goes with the last one I posted;
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6743SG20100805
Nuff said...... ]

If you have been reading my micro blog on the right (I am really not sure why I bother on that one… I don’t think any one reads it…..) you would know that yesterday we had the biggest shake here in Temecula for some time.
Yesterday it was reported as a 5.9, then about 1/2 an hour latter 5.6 and then this morning I see that is has been officially rated at 5.4.

Even the locals are talking about it.
I was working back (as usual) when it hit. At first a gentle roll. A few of us felt it and said the usual ‘here we go’, and I sat back to enjoy it, but then it got a stronger roll to it and we all raised our voices, then all of a sudden it got real jerky and really started to actually shake.
It was the first time I have ever really felt it shake. Its hard to describe, if you have been on a boat, you know the feel of a rolling quake, but when it really shakes its a whole different thing.
The building started to bang and make some real noise. By this time all the office workers are on their feet and looking around and generally getting pretty excited.
Nothing fell off my desk or anything, and I have heard no reports of damage anywhere. Its pretty sparsely populated out there.
Thankfully it all settled down pretty quick, I would say the whole event lasted about 30 seconds.
I whipped out the cell phone to get some video right at the end and got nothing other than a bunch of us being all excited, I will spare you from that video…… So here is the shake map from the USGS web site;

Earthquake shake map

You can see that it was both very close to Temecula and also how good at dirt is from filtering us from all the action. By the time it got to us it really had lost a lot of its sting.

I’m losing track how many now I have felt, I know I was here for a long time and wanting to feel one and now I have had my fill and could be happy not going through another….. Thing is, I dont think that is much of a plan. The interesting thing about yesterday was that it was a really minor fault line and has not been active for years and years. No one was watching it or expecting any from it. The question is did the Easter Sunday one down the way set this one up or not?

Anyway, it seems to be a way of life here and makes me think about stock piling food and water for what it would be worth……

Since I moved the web server on the weekend, I can now get access to the data files…… This means that I can get my weather station back up and running.
Yea.
I have really missed it, I think I have lost the history (again), but oddly enough, after everything else, I really dont care, I just am happy that its back up and running.

Yes, I know there are some pretty major spikes in the data. I am not going to look at them until after we move. I suspect its got something to do with how the sensor cables are coiled up in the roof, so all that will change at the next house…. If I still have the problem there, I will look at it then.

In the mean time, enjoy the data.

These little guys hang out on the work carpark. Every day after work I go out and I always smile at them scurrying away from my size 12 clobbers.
They are so fast that I have never even bothered to even try and take a photo. For two years I have been wanting to share this with you all, but with out a photo it would have been a little dull.
Today was different, this guy just sat there when I walked out the door and to the bike.
I had plenty of time to whip out my new phone camera and get this shot. Amazing!!

[Edit: I should add that these guys are about 4-6 inches from nose to tail, so they are a pretty good size].

Freddy’s friend Hope is away for a few weeks, so we have been baby sitting her pool, house, yard and rats. Terry loves to swim and generally muck about. I still have an issue with water in my ears so only sometimes join him. I think if we ever get a place of our own we might look at putting in a small pool……first we need a place…..

Freddy and I bought 2 mattress’s off Craigslist of late. Freddy wanted a bedroom suite (a matching one for the first time in our lives), it came with a bed.
We gave our current mattress to Amy, she has been after a double bed for yonks.
After a few sleeps it was clear that it was not good enough for the both of us. (It was anti-stuffed and sagged in the middle big time).
So, we gave it to Terry. (Who is too tall for his single bed (I blame my mum, all her side of the family is tall)).
We bought another double mattress off Craigslist, this time, we got a good one.

So, we were left with 2 single mattress’s in the garage…. I don’t spend a lot of time in there, but they were really cramping my style (wait, I have style? Never mind).

What to do…?? I asked around work a bit about where you take your rubbish in Temecula. Got plenty of blank looks and no answers.
There are no tips / rubbish dumps here. No transfer stations or anything like that.
Best idea was to hire a skip, put them in that and do it that way. Seemed to be over kill to me, so we started ringing around.
One person said just put them out the front of your house, they will go over night (Phhff, yeah, right).

Turns out that mattress’s are considered bio-hazards. With all the body fluids that can end up on them, you cant just get rid of them any old how…….
For example, the Salvos and the like do not collect them because they can not resell them. In a nut shell, they will not collect them because then they have to pay a bunch of money to get rid of them.
So, a few more phone calls showed that the council will do 2 collections of 4 bits of ‘hard rubbish’ per house per year. This worked out Ok as we had the two mattress’s and a base for one of them, so that was 3 bits of junk. And we hope to be at our current address only for a few more months (no, we have not heard anything about the house, trust me, when we hear, you will hear about it).

We rang the council, and booked the truck to come first thing Monday morning.
To save Freddy dragging them out on her own, we put them out front of the house last night.

5:20am this morning when I set out on my morning walk, I noticed they were gone.
Go figure.
Wish we had done that weeks ago.