3/13/15

Oh!  That’s why that USB drive took a shit, it’s Friday the 13^th.  So here’s that story.  I drove Scooby Two to work today and thought, “I know, I’ll load some music from the i-Tunes onto that USB drive the Asian Heritage Group gave me in appreciation for… whatever, and use it instead of the i-Pod in this car!  It has that cool Asian artwork on it and the little Asian tassel thing, it’ll be really cool.”  So I sit down at the computer and open up my music file.  I begin copying stuff over and wonder just how much I’m going to be able to fit on here.  I stop and take a look at the space remaining.  Yeah, I have 6.8GB left of 7.6GB available.  I really start moving shit over then.  I finally copy Yaz’s “You and Me Both” and still have something like 2.3GB left.  I’m quite chuffed.  Of course I have no misconceptions that it is ever going to play in the car, because shit just doesn’t work that way, but at least I’ve made the copies.  I contact John to tell him what I’m doing and forewarn, I guess, him that when it doesn’t work, I won’t be surprised.  He texts back that the identical unit they installed in Patrick’s truck worked fine.  I start to ask if the thing reads folders, if so how, or do I need all of the songs to be in one big lump.  I ask him to call when he’s free.  I begin to move songs into folders.  I have just about finished the first folder when all of a sudden the window closes and the computer says, “You must format the disc in drive E before you can use it.”  Even I know that will delete everything I just put on there.  I text John saying he didn’t need to call after all since the USB drive is going in the trash.  I ‘splain about the formatting window and he says that it should still work in the car.  Well, it was too late by then because the thing was already broken into several pieces and thrown away.  I don’t know why I even try to work with new technology.  It never works… NEVER!  I’d say something trite like, “Oh well, live and learn,” but I never do.  I keep trying and keep spiking my blood pressure.  At least the laptop survived this one… for now.  I might start doing a Dread Pirate Roberts every time I shut it down, “Goodnight Westley.  Sleep well.  I’ll most likely kill you in the morning!”  We’ll see.  So, how did the Wednesday evening shop experiment go?  Well, it’s like this… Western Center Blvd backs up from I-35 to the railroad every evening starting around 1500h.  I knew that would be a losing proposition.  I decided to take Mk IV Parkway down to Loop 820 as usual but turn east onto the access road rather than going west and home.  My thinking was that if I-35 looked to be moving I would just jump on but if it wasn’t I’d turn on Meacham and go surface streets.  That plan went into the shitter when they not only had the entrance ramp to I-35 closed but the access road as well.  I had to cut back across towards Mk IV Parkway.  Of course that road backed up for blocks. I turned and headed back towards the other cut through road and made it to Mk IV again.  Now was time for an decision.  Having seen I-35 moving, I thought I might just jump on 820 and forget the surface streets.  Nope, I turned south on Mk IV.  That backed up for blocks at Meacham… which in turn backed up all the way to I-35.  After half an hour I finally got on I-35… which began to back up at Northside Drive, is it does.  I pulled my usual move of jumping in the far right lane, the one which eventually is exit only at Belknap, and passed quite a few cars.  I took the Pharr exit knowing that I could turn under the freeway and get on the left-lane-entrance ramp bypassing the assholes (like me but not as smart) who try to merge over at the last minute when the lane runs out.  I cleared a few hurdles that way.  I took the I-30/287 exit planning to go 287 but it was backing up.  I went I-30 and jumped off at Beach.  Then it was just a matter of backtracking our route from the shop to Mexican Inn.  I arrived at the shop about an hour… maybe 45 minutes, after leaving work.  I think it is conceivable to make a weekly shop evening a thing.  We’ll discuss it more, I’m sure.  So, I guess that’s about all I have to say.  I’ll tell y’all about the pedal-bar trip around downtown we’re doing tomorrow on Monday… oh, and the gun show on Sunday.  I’m sure I’ll have a report about that as well.  Smell ya later.